


The Turning of the Tide

by HopeBurnsBright, Ready_Player_Two



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Creature Inheritance, Dark Veela, F/M, Hogwarts Seventh Year, M/M, Manipulative Dumbledore, Past Child Abuse, Recovery, Redeemed Dudley, Rescue, Sirens, Slow Build, Slow To Update, Veela, Voldemort dead, Werewolves, like super slow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-17 15:12:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 39,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3534131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeBurnsBright/pseuds/HopeBurnsBright, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ready_Player_Two/pseuds/Ready_Player_Two
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a surprising turn of events, Harry manages to kill Voldemort at the Department of Mysteries after he and his godfathers track down the Horcruxes and destroy them all, including the one inside Harry. Death Eaters are still lurking about, forcing Harry to have to continue to stay with his aunt and the Blood Wards. On Harry's seventeenth birthday, Sirius and Remus plan on rescuing Harry from his relatives house. However, things are about to get very tricky. A surprise creature inheritance. The Ministry on his back. Soulmate. NEWTS.</p><p>-This fic is NOT ABANDONED. We're just slow. And busy. Think of us as busy sloths-</p><p>Warnings and rating are subject to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I Dreamed a Dream

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own Harry Potter nor am I making any money off of this. Beta-d by my friend Ready_Player_Two

He was dreaming he was swimming again. Before his fourth year, he had never thought much about swimming. Now, though, it was all the boy could think about. To be honest, when he first entered the Black Lake he had been terrified. How could he not be? Once he took the gillyweed, Harry couldn't breathe, but once he was in the water it was like magic. And it wasn't that he could suddenly breathe, it was the sheer beauty of the lake. Harry never considered that below the water's surface was a beauty that he hadn't encountered since he first set eyes on the castle all those years ago. He had almost forgotten why he was in the water in the first place, well until one of the Selkies scared the shit out of him. If they were what muggles called mermaids, then maybe muggles were as stupid as some pure bloods believed.

The waters of the Black Lake felt so comfortable. Never before had Harry felt so right with himself, like he belonged somewhere. So, once again, the boy was dreaming of swimming. The dark waters, the maze of kelp and other seaweeds, and even in his dreams swimming just felt right. He never really did anything special in these dreams, mostly he just swam around. This time he was swimming in clear waters with coral surrounding him. He imagined that this was what coral reefs must look like. Animals and various algae eaters clinging to rocks while schools of fish swam around. It was beautiful and he hoped that he would get the chance one day to swim in an ocean like this dream.

Harry James Potter was no fool. He knew full that he would never see a coral reef so long as he lived in his uncle's house. He also knew that his dreams of swimming was more than likely a way to escape the fact that he was living with his aunt and uncle still. He knew it and he didn't really care. If his dreams of swimming and of seeing his friends got him through the summer then he would happily indulge himself. After all, it was his last summer with his relatives.

Harry had made Remus and Sirius promise that he could live with them once he was done with schooling, now that Sirius had cleared his name and took his place as Lord Black. Sirius though, did one better and promised that by Harry's seventeenth birthday he'd have legal custody over him. Remus and Sirius knew that Dumbledore would use the fact that age of adulthood in England was eighteen to keep Harry in his relatives house. So, even though Sirius would have no legal control over him in the Wizarding World, this way he could be Harry's legal guardian on the off chance they got stranded in muggle England or something. Also, it was Sirius' way of saying “Fuck you” to Dumbledore for trying to use Harry as a sacrifice. If it was up to Dumbledore, Harry would still be looking for Horcruxes and would have never known about the one in himself. Yes, there were still Death Eaters around, but Tom Riddle was dead and Harry couldn't be happier. He already had a whole school year without someone trying to kill him. It was nice.

~~

Repeated rasping on the door woke Harry out of his nice dream of swimming in a coral reef and his eyes opened to the afternoon sun filled light of his small room at Number Four. With a small sigh, he quickly got out of the bed he had took his nap on and walked to the door. His aunt was still knocking when he opened it; he was just surprised they hadn't locked the door once he had finished making lunch for them or maybe his aunt had already unlocked it.

“Vernon has another list for you,” Petunia said simply as she handed his second chore list for the day before walking back down the stairs. Harry had to bite his tongue to keep from saying anything. It seemed since learning that he wouldn't have Harry to torture every summer, Vernon had doubled his efforts of making Harry's life a living hell. Instead of groaning or saying something stupid, Harry simply took the list and nodded, not really caring that Petunia was long gone.

Once the beautiful roast that Harry had cooked was on the table, the boy was back outside doing yard work. Out back of course, where no one could see him. Harry was only allowed to work on the front lawn in the early hours of the mornings, which he did everyday just so the neighbors wouldn't see him. Harry, currently mowing the grass again, hadn't dared set a place for himself at the table,even though he had made enough food to feed the entire Order. Not just the roast, but a huge salad per Aunt Petunia's new diet instructions, and homemade chocolate pudding for desert.

No, Harry knew Vernon would've asked if the chores were done. Which, they both knew wouldn't get done until well into the night. The boy had known as soon as his aunt had handed him the list that Uncle Vernon would be giving him a beating. Not that he could really defend himself, no he wasn't able to use magic until at the earliest midnight and he knew Vernon wouldn't let him stall long enough to let that happen. So, Harry had resigned himself to getting one last beating. Probably one of the worst since Sirius and Remus would be picking him in the morning.

Harry had just finished with the yard work when Vernon stepped outside, “Boy! Get in here and clean up!”

“Yes, Uncle Vernon.” Glancing at the kitchen clock once he was inside made his chest deflate, it was only eight O'clock. Still four more hours yet until he became an adult in the eyes of wizarding kind. Maybe if he begged Vernon would go easy on him? Even in his head it sounded like a long shot.

~~

“Uncle, please. I did all of my chores. Can't I just go to bed?” Harry pleaded as he stumbled up the stairs. Aunt Petunia had already turned on the vacuum so the neighbors wouldn't hear Harry's screams.

“I told Petunia I wouldn't have it. I wouldn't allow such an unnatural freakishness stand under my roof.” Vernon said, ignoring anything that Harry said has he stormed up the stairs after his nephew. “I should have listened to Marge and took you to an orphanage but then that meddling man came and said you had to stay. Protect us. Ha! Well, no more. I've suffered though long enough.” By then Vernon's massive hand was wrapped around the back of Harry's neck as he dragged the boy along the upstairs hallway. Now Harry was truly scared as Vernon made quick work of the numerous locks. He'd never seen his uncle this furious and now, Harry was truly scared for his life.

Once Vernon got the door open he practically threw Harry into the room. Stumbling, he was able to stop himself from falling by grabbing a hold of his desk. Harry turned around just in time to have a right hook slam into his face, making the boy's body twist around. The surprise attack made Harry lose his footing and fall down on the his bed before slumping down onto the floor.

“Ungrateful freak,” Harry heard his uncle grumble then a small tinkling sound before the dreaded whoosh of leather rushing through belt loops. There was a crack in the air before Harry felt the belt connect with his back through the loose shirt he wore. Harry should have been able to deal with the pain, he'd dealt with it before. However, the combination of barely eating and being exhausted from completing two long list of chores made him more sensitive than usual. It wasn't long before the boy-who-lived was unconscious.

 


	2. The Redemption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Harry Potter. This was Beta-d by my friend Ready_Player_Two. I meant to post on Thursday but I had finished Chapter 5 ahead of time so you get Chapter 2 today! Yay!

Dudley Dursley was counting down the minutes until he knew for certain that his parents would be sleeping. He was really worried about his cousin this time. Harry hadn't eaten all day and he'd tried to help his cousin with his chores but every time he would start something his mother would catch him. Dudley never got in trouble for it, just told to leave the “boy” alone before Vernon saw. It was after ten now and the seventeen year old was just waiting to hear his father's snoring, then he knew he could sneak a plate of food he had hidden into Harry's room.

Right now the blond was just sitting on his bed fiddling with his key ring. He smiled slightly when he thought about how he obtained a key to Harry's room without his parents knowing. It was on a day they were out of the house at a dinner party last summer and Dudley made the excuse of boxing practice to get out of it. Once Dudley's parents let Harry out to make him make dinner for Dudley before they left, his father actually handed Dudley the key and told him the combinations just in case Harry “got out of hand”. Once his parents were gone, he told his small cousin to make dinner for two and that he'd be back in no more than an hour. Dudley came back from the hardware store with a spare key in just under an hour. He made a promise to Harry that night that he'd do everything he could to help him.

Dudley even went to the police to make a report of child abuse. He and Harry had taken pictures after each one of his cousin's beatings before he did his best to heal them. Not that Dudley could do much but give him pain killers without his father figuring things out. The police were very interested once Dudley had showed them the stack of pictures and they promised to look into the matter, even warning him that if he went through with this that his father would more than likely end up in jail. All Dudley could do for a week after was smile. Finally, he was making things right by his cousin. After all Harry had saved his life once from the creepy hooded things that Harry called “Dementors”. Well, Dudley was happy until he got a letter from the Headmaster of Harry's school. The letter said that the “muggles” had been “obliviated” and the file against Vernon was destroyed because apparently if Harry didn't stay at the house every summer then these men called “Death Eaters” would find and kill him. Of course, Harry had to explain some things and the weird words but Dudley had been pissed. Bloody hell, he was still pissed! His cousin's two options were being abused or be killed? The Wizarding World was mental.

Dudley was trying his best to make up for how horrible he had treated his cousin in the past. Now, when Harry had nightmares, Dudley would sneak into his cousin's room and wake him up. Then they'd just talk. Sometimes about their different schools, sometimes about friends, and Harry even answered Dudley's questions about magic and the magical world. Apparently, a Dark Lord tried to kill Harry when he was a baby. Harry had killed him though, inside the magical government building. Harry called it the Ministry of Magic and something about the Department of Mysteries. Dudley didn't pay much attention after Harry admitted to murdering a madman. No wonder his cousin had nightmares. Apparently some of the followers of the Dark Lord were still after him but the main threat was gone.

There it was, the thunderous snore that signaled his father's deep sleep. Dudley grabbed the plate of roast and quietly walked across the hall to Harry's room. It took a minute to unlock the various locks before he stepped inside the room. The blond's eyes immediately found his cousin's prone figure on the floor. He could see the blood soaked shirt from the door. Trying to be both quick and quiet, Dudley set the plate down on Harry's desk before kneeling down next to the other boy.

“Please don't be dead. I can't help you if you're dead,” Dudley murmured as he moved Harry's head slightly as to not be flat on the floor. Placing his hand lightly over Harry's mouth and nose, Dudley was relieved to feel his cousin's breath on his hand. “Oh thank God. Just unconscious.”

Harry couldn't stay here. Surely, Harry's godfather picking him up a few hours early wouldn't be too bad. Especially if they went to a hospital. Were there hospitals in the Wizarding World? No, of course there were. The Wizarding World couldn't be that weird.

Dudley racked his brain trying to figure out a way to get a hold of Remus Black. Or was it Sirius Lupin? No, it was Black, Dudley was sure of that. Being a non-magical human, Dudley knew Harry's wand wouldn't be much help. Dudley knew where it was but it was useless to him. Glancing over to where Harry had kept his owl, it was no use. The top of the dresser that housed the owl in a cage was empty currently. Harry gave his owl to his godfather so Vernon wouldn't have another excuse to beat him. Plus, according to Harry there were faster ways of communicating than by owl. Looking around the room, Dudley's eyes landed on Harry's pillow. The mirror! Harry had mentioned the device and even showed it to him once. It was like a wizarding version of a telephone, at least how Harry had explained it. Dudley pulled a small hand mirror out from under the pillow and sat on the bed.

“Uh, 'Ello?” Nothing. Dudley searched the entire hand mirror for a button of some sort or a hidden key pad. When he couldn't find any, he just turned it around so he was looking at his own reflection. “Look, I know I'm not a wizard but Harry said you would work anyway.” Still nothing. Maybe it was like an Iphone? Touch screen? Dudley let a finger touch the cool glass. Maybe it was voice activated? “Uh, call Black? Please?” Now this was just getting frustrating. Dudley was about to give up and figure out another way. “This is an emergency you stupid mirror. You show me Black or Lupin or whoever will talk.” Suddenly, the mirror glowed and Dudley could see two men inside the mirror frame. The closer man had black hair and dull gray eyes and the other man had brown hair with amber eyes.

The man with black hair spoke first, confused, “You aren't my godson.”

“Uh, no sir. I'm Dudley Dursley, his cousin. Are you two Lupin and Black?”

The brunette man nodded as the other spoke again, “I'm Sirius Black, Harry's godfather. Behind me is Remus Lupin. Is Harry okay? Wait, how are you using the mirror? You're muggle!”

Remus, behind Sirius, sighed, “See, this is why I wanted to use something not muggle made. Hand mirrors are a muggle invention. All we did was enchant it. Honestly Sirius, there's a whole department in the Ministry for this sort of thing. Arthur works there, remember?”

“Oh, right. Remember that umbrella Arthur told us about?”

“Is there a way you two could pick Harry up sooner? Like now?” Dudley said, interrupting the two men. “Not that I don't like learning about the magical world but Harry's in trouble.”

“What sort of trouble?” Remus asked, grabbing the mirror from Sirius.

“My Father beat him sir, it's not the first time either. Harry's unconscious now though.” Mr. Black started yelling in the background about muggles and Dumbledore.

“Dudley, this is important, can you move Harry?”

Dudley shook his head quickly. “No sir, I don't know how bad his back is. I mean, physically, yeah I could but I don't want to make it worse. Harry said there was a way you could appear somewhere in an instant? I can give you my address. It's number four, Privet Drive. It's the village Little Whinging in the county Surrey. That's just south of county London, if you know where that is.”

“We can be at your front door in less than a minute with some healing potions. We'll disapparate back here from Harry's room.” Dudley wasn't sure if Remus was talking to him or Sirius at that point but he nodded and put the mirror down. By the time Dudley was able to get down stairs, turn the alarm off, and open the door, the two men were standing there waiting. Dudley blinked for a moment before letting the men in, locking, and arming the alarm back up.

“Harry's upstairs, I left his bedroom door open but I'll need help getting his school stuff out from the cupboard. It's just too heavy for one person to take up there.”

“Sirius, you help Dudley and I'll go see how bad the damage is. No buts, you know full well I'm a better healer than you are.” Remus said hurriedly, anticipating Sirius' protests. When he finally got a nod out of the other man, Remus ascended the stairs and Sirius turned to Dudley.

“It's just here,” Dudley whispered pointing to the small door under the stairs.

“Harry told me about this cupboard,” Sirius grimly noted as Dudley unlocked the latch and opened the door. “Here, step aside. I can levitate it.” Sirius pulled his wand out and muttered a Wingardium Levisosa. Sirius nodded to Dudley then followed him up, the trunk floating behind the man. “Thank you, by the way. Harry told me how nice you've become.”

“I wish I could've done more sir.”


	3. The Great Escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own Harry Potter. My Beta is Ready_Player_Two.
> 
> I am so sorry it has taken so long to get this chapter up for you guys. I wanted to finish writing Chapter 6 before I put this up and it became like a nightmare chapter. I started writing it when I put Chapter 2 up and did not finish until today. Then I had college try to cram a few tests in before my spring break. Please forgive me. Anyway, here is Chapter 3!

Remus Lupin could smell the blood as soon as Dudley had opened the door and the werewolf was not happy. Someone had hurt a member of his pack. Granted, his pack consisted of his mate, his beta, and his pup but they were a pack dammit. For a werewolf, a normal sized pack was five to six members consisting of at least three werewolves. Though, it wasn't uncommon for an entire pack to consist of werewolves. Remus' father would've never let him join a pack. Mr. Lupin was very much against werewolves, to the point of going to the Ministry with the proposed Werewolf Registration and Strict Regulation Laws. Remus tried not to think that the only reason he was a werewolf now was because his father pissed off Fenrir Grayback. Remus tried, but he also knew it was true. Mr. Lupin had forbidden Remus from joining any packs, and instead wanted Remus to go to school. Then the war happened. Sirius got placed in Azkaban. James died. Werewolf Laws got stricter and stricter, thanks to Mr. Lupin and his followers, and while the war was going on packs seemed to go into hiding. Remus supposed he could have joined a pack once the first war was over and he was out of his father's house but, most werewolves had turned to the dark when the war broke out and most were stupid enough to believe that they could survive the moon without the wolfsbane potion. No, Remus was more than happy with his small pack.

Currently, Remus had Harry suspended in the air in the small bedroom, running the only diagnostic spell he knew. He only learned it so he could do quick healing on the battle field. Remus had already sealed the whip marks on Harry's back and spelled a blood replenishing potion into Harry's stomach. Remus looked down at Harry's unconscious form, his body was suspended next to Remus' waist as he watched the light slowly go down the boy's body from his head to his feet. Once the light ended, colors appeared above his body.

Different colors meant different things. The red was scattered in different places, meaning issues with bones. The pink wasn't as bad as the dark burgundy, indicating actual broken bones, but there was more pink meaning the bones were weakened in some way. There was a light green around where his lungs were, meaning bacterial infection of some sort. But the color was light enough that Remus was confident they could take care of it, Harry probably wasn't showing any symptoms yet. There was dark blue everywhere, indicating exhaustion both physical and mental. The purple that was coating everything had Remus worried. The werewolf had never seen purple and he honestly had no clue what it meant.

“How does he look Remus?” Remus looked up at Sirius and Dudley coming into the bedroom and shook his head with a frown. “Well, is it bad?”

“I'm not sure Sirius but I think we may need to take him to St. Mungo's to be safe. We can floo from the Black Manor. I want to warn Tonks first.”

“You think it's that serious?”

“I don't know but let's get Harry's things packed up,” Remus said canceling the diagnostic spell. With Dudley's help they were able to find all of Harry's personal belongings and neatly get them into his school trunk, where they also found his wand. Remus looked at Dudley once they were done, “Are you sure you'll be safe in this house?” Dudley nodded quickly. “You're positive? I don't feel right leaving you here with that man.”

“I'm his son. I could never do wrong in his eyes. He'll just think Harry's run away or something. Knowing him, we'll be celebrating all day.”

Sirius dove back into the trunk and pulled out the mirror, handing the communication device to Dudley. “We'll keep you updated. I'll call for you at ten each night. Just make sure your father or any other muggle doesn't get a hold of that. The ministry will have my head. At least with you I can tell them that you're family.” Sirius snorted, “Your father's more likely to break it though.”

“Thank you. Um, how exactly do you use it? I almost shouted trying to get it to work.”

“Say 'Show me' and whoever you want to talk to. It'll glow if it's working. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, or Nymphadora Tonks. One of us will have the other mirror.” Sirius closed the trunk and looked to Remus. Remus had just canceled the levitation spell on Harry and was carrying him bridal style. “You've got him Moony?”

“Yes, we'll apparate to the entrance hall. Just long enough to hand over Harry's trunk to the house elfs. Dudley, were going to make a loud noise so you'll want to get to your room quickly,” Remus warned the blond boy.

“Wait just for a moment,” Dudley said as he walked to Harry's desk. Dudley grabbed a pen and pulled out a spare paper from a desk drawer before quickly writing a note. When he was done, Dudley set the pen down and folded the paper into a small square then handed it to Sirius. “For Harry, when he wakes up.”

~~

The two men popped into the foyer of the Black Manor, a large three story estate. Sirius mostly used this room to apparate in and out of the house since he hadn't had much time to entertain guests and the floo network was connected to the fireplace inside the room. Tonks was already there waiting for them, short bubblegum pink hair swaying as she paced back and forth. Sirius quickly called for Kreacher and the other House Elves, whom all appeared with a loud crack.

“Remus! I came here as soon as I got your Patronus,” Tonks exclaimed as she rushed over to Remus, not once taking her eyes off of Harry's unconscious body. “It's not bad, is it?”

“I sealed the wounds and got a blood replenishing potion in him already,” Remus began to pace in clear agitation as Sirius began to order House Elves around. “Dammit Tonks, he has whip marks covering his back! I knew when he finally told us about the abuse that we should've just taken him then! I mean, I've always had my doubts about his home life-”

Tonks quickly cut off Remus' rant, eyes wide in shock, “What do you mean he's been abused!? And you knew? Why didn't you tell me? I'm an Auror! Merlin's beard, this is the kind of thing that as an Auror-”

“Don't, Tonks,” Remus growled out his order. He had stopped pacing for a moment to glare at the girl. “I feel bad enough already without you to remind me.” There was a slight pause as neither of them spoke. Neither of them trusting themselves to speak without getting angry. Remus took a deep breath before explaining, “Harry made Sirius and I promise not to tell a soul until Sirius had custody over him again. He fears becoming a Ward of the Ministry.” Remus walked over to the fireplace with Harry and leaned against the adjoining wall. “Not that I blame him, as Minister Fudge would have the power to place him with any wizarding family he sees fit.”

“And with people like the Malfoys still in the Minister's back pocket.” Finally, the Auror was catching on to the situation. The Malfoy family was still considered a Dark family, much like the Black family, even though it turned out that their participation in the war was not voluntary by any means. However, if a Dark family like Malfoy was known to be in the Minister's back pocket, who knew what kind of actual Death Eaters had say over the Minister.

“Exactly,” Remus sighed with a small nod. “He didn't want to tell you because he knew you'd be bound to your oath to tell the head of the Auror Office. He didn't want to ask you to go against it so he asked us not to tell you.” Harry was always like that though, thinking of others before himself. “I made him promise to keep in contact. One week without a letter and I was telling you and he was to tell me everything that was going on in that house. Obviously, he didn't or his family went insane on the last day. I'm not sure but I need you to make sure Dumbledore doesn't have a chance to take him away. Sirius won't legally have custody of him for another hour or so.”

“You don't think Dumbledore knows that this was going on, do you? Surly he would have put a stop to it.”

“I don't know but I don't want to take that chance.”

By this time Tonk was the one pacing the room, back and forth in front of the fireplace. “How about this, we take him to St. Mungo's together. Once there I'll send Robards* a patronus. Knowing him, he'll still be in the office. We just got back from a raid two hours ago. I'll explain to him what is going on with Harry. I'm sure that he'll assign extra security. If not, which I doubt, I can call in a favor from Moody. You know he won't let anyone into see Harry.” As clumsy as the Auror may be, she knew how to make a plan on the spot.

Before Remus could agree to anything, Sirius came back from ordering House Elves around. “All of Harry's things are in his room. Are we going?” His voice betrayed his emotions. The man was scared for his godson and Remus didn't blame him. He was also worried.

“Yes. Tonks first then I'll carry Harry through. Are you good to bring up the rear?” Tonks had already grabbed the floo powder on the fireplace mantle and shouting 'St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries'. Sirius didn't speak and Remus saw the fear in his eyes before he, too, dropped the floo powder into the flames of the fireplace.

~~

Remus carried the unconscious Harry through the floo. St. Mungo's floo was usually only used for patients; visitors used the front entrance via Muggle London. Sirius followed shortly after him and tried to keep up with Remus' long strides. Tonks was next to a confused Welcome Witch, her hair turning a vivid red. Remus, for one, was happy that it was late at night; no one could hear the two witches arguing as the ground floor was deserted.

“I just don't understand why Mr. Potter needs to be here. You said yourself that his injuries weren't related to magic nor did he do something like fall off a broom. Unless you can tell me what exactly happened to Mr. Potter, I'm afraid there is nowhere I can put him.”

“I told you. He was being abused. He's malnourished. He's-”

“What Wizard would abuse their child? Are you sure he wasn't attacked by Death Eaters with magic?” By then Remus was standing in front of the information desk, pissed and growling. “And don't tell me that muggles did it. We're talking about the Boy-Who-Lived.” The Welcome Witch looked at Remus and Sirius, then Harry in Remus' arms. “By Merlin, what happened to him?”

“You will get my cub a room and a Healer. Now.” Remus' eyes turned a chilling yellow. He could hear Sirius and Tonks trying to talk to him, both of their arms on his shoulders or the arms that held Harry, but all Remus could see was the woman in front of him who didn't believe his cub was abused. Before he realized it, a low growl had started in his chest.

“Tonks, find a Healer now. Remus?” The werewolf heard a low whine from his mate, signaling distress. “Remus, look at me dammit!” Yellow eyes snapped down to his mate, who's eyes were wide open with fear. Somehow Sirius had managed to wedge himself between Remus and the desk that kept the Welcome Witch safe. “Please, you need to get a hold of yourself. I know you're angry but this won't help Harry.” Remus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Sirius was right, of course.

“Remus Lupin?” Remus looked over to his right, seeing Tonks with a man in the healer issued lime green robes. “My name is Healer Marlowe, I'd like to help you and your cub. Auror Tonks said his name is Harry Potter and he's been abused.” The man's voice was careful and calm while his body was in a relaxed position. It instantly calmed Remus down. “Tonks said that you did a preliminary scan. Do you mind if you tell me your finding while I run a more extensive scan?”

“Yes, of course Healer Marlowe.”

~~

In a private room on the fourth floor Remus and Sirius sat in chairs next to the hospital bed were their godson slept, still unconscious. Tonks stood outside the room keeping guard. Healer Marlowe, a tall middle aged man, had just finished setting up potions on the counter for Harry to take once he woke.

“I've healed the damage to his back but I can't give him the rest of these potions until I know he has some food in him.” Healer Marlowe said with a sigh. “The purple you saw in your preliminary diagnostic was indicating a charm placed on Harry probably when he was a baby. It's a hold, if you will, on his inheritance. So, it wouldn't have had any noticeable effects until Harry's seventeenth birthday. But I strongly recommend getting it removed before then. His magical core will want to expand and if his body does not let it, he could be driven to madness.”

“His seventeenth birthday is in an hour. We need to remove it now,” Sirius urgently said.

“I'd rather take the hold off once he's conscious enough to take the potions. A few hours, while he is asleep, is nothing compared to the damage he could have sustained if we had never discovered this charm at all. Besides, I don't know what kind of inheritance he could have. It could just be a magical boost or he could come into a creature inheritance. We just won't know until we take the hold off. Do you know if there is any creature blood in the Potter line? I know his mother was a muggle-born witch, could she have descended from a squib line?”

Remus spoke up finally, “Lily never looked into the idea that she could have descended from a squib line, especially after she turned seventeen and only received a small magical boost. James once mentioned creature blood in his family being dormant. No one got the inheritance in generations. I don't think it was anything too unusual. Elf, Fae, a Dark Veela maybe?”

“I'll get the Healer-in-charge from the first floor to help us. He'll know better than I how to deal with a creature inheritance.”

“First floor?” Sirius questioned. “I don't understand. Isn't that the Creature-Induced Injuries floor?”

“It was Lord Black, however, since Harry defeated the Dark Lord, we at St. Mungo's have been slowly re-evaluating and renaming our floors. The first floor is now a Creature Specialty floor. Their healers have extensive knowledge in the care and well being of different magical creatures as well as how to treat creature induced injuries. It has taken us two years but we are finally updating this hospital after centuries of refusing to help non-magical sicknesses and injuries.”

*Gawain Robards is the current head of the Auror Office who was briefly mentioned in Half-Blood Prince.

 


	4. Panic at St. Mungo's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the month long absence, but I had finals. I'm done now though! As a thank you for all of the support I'll be posting a chapter tonight and another one tomorrow around 5pm PST. So you will get two chapters quickly and hopefully I'll have more for you soon. Just as a side note, I will be having surgery around July after my summer classes end. I'm hoping I can get a chapter up just before the surgery happens but as I don't currently have a date, we'll just have to wait and see. As always, this was betad by the lovely Ready_Player_Two. Everything belongs to JK Rowling.

“Nymphadora Tonks, you had better not be lying to me,” A voice called out. Upon hearing her name, Tonks looked up from where she stood outside of Harry's medical room and saw none other than Head Auror Gawain Robards still dressed his standard issue floor length brown coat. Robards was an older man of Indian decent with short gray hair. “You expect me to believe that the boy who killed You-Know-Who when he was fifteen has been abused by muggles?”

“I don't know much Robards, only what Remus has told me.” Tonks said with a sad sigh. She should've expected this. Just assuming he'd send security was just wishful thinking. “Harry's been in there for half and hour now and unconscious that entire time, maybe longer. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black are in there with him.”

“Well I had Dumbledore down my throat saying he's been kidnapped, no real proof, other than the wards saying he isn't in the house,” Tonks knew then that Robards current anger was in relation to Dumbledore and not anything she had actually done. The off-duty Auror was then able to relax against the wall. Tonks knew where Gawain was coming from; she'd be pissed too if Dumbledore was demanding Aurors from her in what is technically a time of peace. There was no war going on and Dumbledore wasn't a leader of Light anymore. Harry took care of that almost as quickly as the war began. The very few Death Eaters that were still out there were being slowly found by the Auror Department. It had nothing to do with the old man. Dumbledore was just a Headmaster now. Well, unless you counted his position in the Wizengamot.* “Then your patronus comes in, and he starts to demand, as Harry's magical guardian, that he be here. I managed to get the old man to wait thankfully. He'll be here in no less than a half an hour. I need to talk to Mr. Potter's Healer before Dumbledore gets here so I start the paperwork to declare him a Ward of the Ministry.” Tonks knew that even if Harry was declared a Ward of the Ministy, the Wizengamot, and those in it, wouldn't have a say in where Harry went. That job was one of the duties of the Minister of Magic. Either way, it didn't really matter. Harry would be an adult soon.

“He'll be seventeen in twenty-two minutes Robards,” Tonks happily told her boss. She was, in a way, giving him good news. If Harry was an adult then Robards wouldn't need to fill out any unnecessary paperwork. “He's under the care of the Healer-in-charge. Do you really need to declare him a Ward of the Ministry? Dumbledore won't even be his muggle guardian when he does show up never mind magical guardian. Sirius will be.”

Robards furrowed his brow in clear confusion, “Lord Black will have custody of Mr. Potter? I don't understand, he'll be an adult.”

“To us, yes,” Tonks explained with a small smile still on her face. “Not in the muggle world though, they aren't considered adults until they turn eighteen. Sirius is just his guardian in muggle matters. As Harry is unconscious currently, the Healers differ to his Magical Guardian unless, like now, he isn't here. The Healers would've called Dumbledore himself but they recognize and know that Sirius was reinstated as Harry's Godfather some months ago. To the Healers, family supersedes someone like Dumbledore.”

“In your patronus, you said the muggles that Dumbledore put him with are his relatives. What do you know about them?” The man questioned with a scowl, clearly trying to understand who and why someone had abused a child. Any child.

Tonks nodded and started to quickly recite what she knew of Harry's only living relatives, “The Dursley family, from what I could gather, are your typical mid-class muggles living in the suburbs. They spend way too much time snooping on their neighbors and trying to keep up appearances. Harry's Aunt is his mother's sister. The family consists of the Aunt, her husband, and son.”

“And Dumbledore placed Mr. Potter with his relatives to keep him safe from the Dark Lord's followers?” When Harry first went into “hiding” when he was one, it was assumed that Dumbledore placed him in a loving muggle family, as not many knew of Lily's sister and said family, to keep him safe from those who would want revenge for what the young baby had done to their master.

Tonks nodded but responded with, “Fat lot of good that did him though. Harry still ended up having to kill the Dark Lord and he is still a target for Death Eaters.”

“Right,” Robards agreed glumly. There was a long pause where both of the Aurors seemed to be lost in thought before the man spoke again. “Well, I'll talk to his Healer still. I'll talk to Lord Black and Remus Lupin as well. Once Mr. Potter is awake, I can ask him if he wants to press charges.”

~~

Exactly thirty minutes later, a mere eight minutes after midnight and the start of Harry's seventeenth birthday, Dumbledore came storming down the corridor and narrowed in on Tonks. Robards, Lupin, Black, and Marlowe were all inside Harry's room and had been talking while Tonks stood outside guarding. No one was allowed in, except for one Healer-in-training who mostly served as Healer Marlowe's assistant. Robards told Tonks that she was to use her position as Auror to keep all unauthorized personnel out, even though she wasn't currently on duty, and if there was any trouble she was to send her potronus inside.

“Hullo Headmaster,” Her hair was its usual bubblegum pink and she had the brightest smile on her face. Nothing the Headmaster could say was going to get him inside. “What brings you to St. Mungo's on this fine July night?”

“Good evening Nymphadora,” Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye as he stood before the Auror. Tonks had positioned herself directly in front of the door to Harry's room. “I'm here to see to Harry. I came as soon as I heard that he was in St. Mungo's. So kind of Remus and Sirius to bring him in.” Which, Tonks knew was a lie or Dumbledore would have been at the hospital a good half hour ago.

“Yes, well, I'm afraid I can't let you in,” Somehow Tonks managed to let Dumbledore use her first name without getting upset. The two adults were currently smiling at each other, letting their calm demeanor and thinly veiled insults do all the work. “Mr. Potter is unconscious and Healer Marlowe is speaking to his guardian.”

“I am Harry's magical guardian.” Tonks couldn't help but let her grin widen when the Headmaster said this.

“Ah, but Mr. Potter is an adult now, as it is currently twelve-ten on this beautiful new day of July thirty-first. He doesn't need a magical guardian anymore.”

“Surely I am still the closest thing Harry has to a guardian. As you said, he is unconscious.”

“Lord Black was reinstated as Mr. Potter's Godfather a good seven months ago.” Which, Tonks knew Dumbledore knew as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot. The Minister was the one to reinstated Sirius all those months ago, but as Chief Warlock Dumbledore was informed.

“Sirius, if you recall Nymphadora, was not reinstated as Harry's magical guardian.” This was the second time the old man had used her first name and it was all Tonks could do to not let her hair turn red with anger. Instead, the Auror just kept smiling.

“Very true Albus,” Tonks said with a small nod. “However, according to muggle law Lord Black is Mr. Potter's Godfather and guardian. Unlike in the Wizarding World, muggles are not considered adults until they turn eighteen, which of course I'm sure you were aware of. As you are also aware, the Ministry doesn't fight muggle law. As soon as Lord Black was made Mr. Potter's guardian in the eyes of the muggle law, your guardianship was revoked. The point is really mute though, as Lord Black was to be granted guardianship once Mr. Potter turned seventeen when you lost guardianship over him anyway. Like I said, I can't let you in.”

Tonks knew immediately that Dumbledore was done playing around. His eyes lost their twinkle as he tried to bring himself to full height. The proverbial gloves were off. “Now see here. I am Harry's Headmaster-”

“Now you see here.” Without realizing it, Tonks' voice grew in volume as she spoke and her hair slowly melted into a deep red. “You only have power as a Headmaster if the school is in session. You aren't going to get into see Mr. Potter. As far as I can tell, you are the reason that Harry is in condition that he's in!”

“What in Merlin's name is going on out here?” The middle aged Healer asked, stepping out of his patient's room while the Head Auror followed. Tonks quickly got out of the two men's way. The contrasting lime green robes of the Healer and the dark leather trench coat of the Auror did nothing to diminish the power that the two men exuded.

“Ah, Gawain, Elliot,” Dumbledore's twinkle was back in his eyes and there was a smile once again on his face. By now, Tonks was openly glaring at the old man. “Good to see you two again. I believe there has been a misunderstanding here. Nymphadora is under the impression that I cannot see Harry. As his-”

“Auror Tonks is correct,” Gawain Robards stated with quick firmness before Dumbledore could continue. “Lord Black does not wish you to be near his charge until such time as you are required to for young Potter's education.”

“Unless you have other business here Headmaster Dumbledore, I'm going to have to ask you to leave St. Mungo's.” The Healer's words were final and Tonks couldn't help but smirk. Not that Dumbledore was paying anymore attention to her, no Dumbledore was far more concerned with the two men who were denying him access to his Golden Boy. Healer Marlowe frowned when the Headmaster made no indications of moving. “I have an angry werewolf in the room behind us who is not happy that you want control of someone whom he views as pack. I will call security if you do not leave.”

Robards took a step towards Dumbledore, gesturing down the hall, “Actually, why don't we leave together? I'd very much like to question you on how young Potter managed to live for fifteen~ years in an abusive home without anyone knowing different.”

The Headmaster was affronted by the thinly veiled accusations. He took a step back as he quickly started forming a sentence. “I highly doubt that the Dursleys-” 

Whether whatever Dumbledore was going to say was any semblance of truth or just a sweep under the rug, they never heard as an enraged Healer quickly cut the Headmaster off. “You did not preform a scan on an unconscious Harry Potter. You have no right to say what did or did not happen to the poor boy.” It did not take long after that for Robards to escort Albus Dumbledore out, but not before promising to send some extra security.

~~

“Remus, you know pacing like that isn't going to wake Harry up, yes?” Tonks asked from her seat at the foot of Harry's bed facing the door. Sirius was currently on the opposite side of the bed, near Harry's head. Remus, on the other hand, was pacing from the door to the opposite wall glancing at Harry's prone body. He didn't give the Auror a response, not that she expected one. She had been in the room with the two men since Robard's security showed up around two in the morning, Remus had been pacing since. Tonks wasn't sure if the werewolf was just not trusting of the new guard posted just outside the door or if he was just anxious for Harry to wake up.

“Remmy, please,” Sirius said without looking up from Harry. “You haven't stopped moving for an hour. Come sit down.”

The silence in the room was downright morbid as they all sat in the small white room. Waiting for Harry to wake up 'naturally' from a reduced dreamless sleep potion was a nightmare but the Healer said it would be better this way. This way all the potions for pain would have settled in and the dreamless sleep would make sure Harry didn't jolt awake from pain or a nightmare. This way, when Harry did wake up, he'd be pain free with potions already worked into his system. Healer Marlowe said that Harry probably wouldn't wake up until after sunrise but all of them were still up waiting. Watching. Finally the silence started to get to Remus again, “Can we talk about something? I can't take this silence and none of us are going to sleep until Harry wakes up.”

“We could talk about the Black heir,” Tonks suggested.

“Harry is the Black heir,” came the absentminded voice from Sirius. True, though it may be, Remus knew exactly what Tonks was talking about. Her idea had some merit Remus had to admit but with everything that was going on it wasn't a practical option. Also, with everything that went on since Tonks had made the suggestion, Remus hadn't had the time to talk to his mate about the idea.

Neither he nor Sirius could get pregnant even though Remus' werewolf recognized Sirius has his mate. Wizards had developed a way for a man to be pregnant but it was highly illegal due to the less than fifty percent chance that the wizard would even live through the potion regiment. There were some creatures who could have a male pregnancy but they were a rare and highly dangerous thing even there. These reasons were why Sirius made Harry his heir and why Remus saw Harry as his cub. There were no orphanages in the Wizarding World, something that only recently was being looked into, and adopting a muggle was near impossible due to the statute of secrecy. 

“That's not what she means Sirius,” Remus said softly. He waited until his mate finally looked up before continuing. “Muggles have another method of pregnancy. When two parents, for some reason, cannot get pregnant on their own they will sometimes use a surrogate.”

“You mean, we get someone pregnant? Then they just...give up the child? Is that legal? I'm pretty sure that is at least adultery.” Tonks couldn't help but laugh, growing up in a wizarding and muggle home she had been raised with both perspectives.

“Uh, no. Well you see, a muggle doctor will take a sperm sample from one of us and an egg from a woman and implant the sperm inside the egg. Then the now fertilized egg is placed in a host mother, from my understanding. It's all scientific and safe. While not common, yes, having a surrogate is perfectly legal in the wizarding world,” Remus said with a smile. “Tonks made the suggestion that we could use a surrogate to have a Black heir. Now, I know you have Harry as your heir,” Remus quickly said as Sirius was about to say something. “However, you have to think about it this way. Harry's already Lord Potter now that he's seventeen. He's Lord Potter Heir Black. He'd be lord of two houses if you died.”

“I guess that's not really fair on him,” Sirius agreed quietly. “But you know I see him as my pup just as much as you see him as your cub.”

“We wouldn't be replacing Harry, we'd be giving him a sibling...of sorts,” Remus assured him. “It's just an option to think about.”

“With Harry?”

“Of course.”

*At this time Dumbledore is the current Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and has been since the Second Wizarding War “officially” began at the end of the fifth book. Which, in this story, is when Voldemort is defeated at the Department of Mysteries.

~Harry did not tell Remus and Sirius about the abuse until Christmas of his sixth year. Which was, in this timeline, just last December. Remember, he was one when Voldemort died and he was first placed at his Aunt's.

 


	5. Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, Chapter 5! Thank you to everyone who has read and left reviews! If you didn't read it in the last Author's Note, I will be having surgery at some point in July. I promise to keep you all updated on that and I swear I won't drop off the face of the planet because of this. As always, this was betad by the lovely Ready_Player_Two! Enjoy!

Slowly, Harry registered that he wasn't being whipped with a belt anymore. In fact, he wasn't lying face down on his wooden floor either. No, he was lying a comfortable mattress with his head in a really soft pillow. Which, didn't make any sense. Harry had never had a nice mattress or soft pillow unless he was in his Hogwarts dormitories. Was he at Hogwarts? No, the school year had ended.

The raven haired boy slowly twitched and flexed his various limbs to make sure he was not being tied down. Harry still had nightmares about being restrained at the graveyard while Voldemort was being reborn in his fourth year. His arms and legs were stiff and hard to move but he wasn't being restrained. Death Eaters hadn't found him. Good. When he was sure that it was safe, the only sounds he could distinguish was a light snoring, Harry slowly opened his eyes and waited to adjust to the bright lights before looking around. Not that he could really see things clearly without his glasses. He was laying down on what kind of looked like a hospital bed in a very white room. Was he in the hospital? That didn't seem possible because his aunt and uncle had never taken him to one before. He knew he wasn't in the hospital wing either, the beds weren't this nice.

Everything was blurry. Harry could make out two people sitting to his right, that was where the light snoring was coming from, and someone else had their head laying at the foot of his bed. Harry was slowly able to prop himself up with his slightly protesting arms to a sitting position. He didn't notice the person laying their head at the foot of the bed also moved until they spoke.

“Wotcher Harry,” The person quietly said through a huge yawn. Harry knew instantly who it was and smiled. “How are you feeling?” It wasn't until Tonks asked that Harry realized that he wasn't in real pain. His throat felt raw but that was about it.

“Better,” He quickly replied with a quiet raspy voice. He wasn't too sure why Tonks was whispering but he had a feeling it had something to do with the person who was snoring. “You don't happen to know where my glasses are, do you?”

“On his bedside table, Tonks,” Harry's heart swelled at the sound of Remus' voice. “Sirius. Harry's awake.”

“'M up,” Came Sirius' tired voice as Tonks handed Harry his glasses. Sirius currently had his head on Remus' shoulder, trying desperately not to yawn, while Remus was just smiling at his mate. Harry couldn't help but smile at the picture the two of them made.

Harry frowned for a moment, “I don't remember you guys picking me up. Where are we exactly?”

“Ground floor of St. Mungos,” Remus said before tuning to Tonks. “Can you go get Healer Marlowe?” Tonks nodded and winked at Harry before leaving. Sirius moved to sit behind Harry, pulling him into a hug, and Remus moved to sit on the edge of the bed facing them. “Your cousin Dudley used the mirror to contact us late last night; you were already unconscious. Why didn't you tell us in your letters that they were still abusing you? I told you to tell us everything they did.”

“But it did get better,” Harry mumbled into Sirius' shoulder. Slowly, he adjusted his head so that Harry was facing Remus properly. Harry couldn't explain it but he didn't want to leave the warmth and safety that Sirius' arm offered. “It really did seem to be getting better. Dudley always helped me. With chores, making sure I always had food, got me medicine when I was hurt. Dudley made these last two summers so much better. I thought I could do it. Uncle Vernon only beat me a few times this summer, I swear. I told you every time except for this last one.” The three of them sat in silence as none of them really knew what to say.

“Hey, Dudley gave us something to give you when you woke up,” Sirius said reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a small folded piece of paper. “Do you want to read it now before Tonks comes back with the Healer?” All Harry did was nod and take the small square from his godfather. Slowly, he unfolded it until it was the size of a normal piece of paper.

> I don't think you're a waste of space.
> 
> Dudley

“Uncle Vernon always called me a waste of space,” Harry said as he handed the paper over to Remus, a few small tears trailing down his cheek.

There was a knock at the door which startled everyone. Harry wiped the tear tracks away as Remus called out a steady 'come in'. Tonks opened the door carrying a tray of sandwiches, a pitcher, and a cup. The Auror stepped aside to let in the man who Harry assumed was his healer before closing the door with her foot. “It's good to see you awake at last Mr. Potter. I'm Healer Marlowe,” the tall man in the lime green robes said. Tonks sat the tray down on the bedside table and quietly poured a cup of water while the healer spoke. He sat down in Sirius' empty chair and spoke softly, “You know, when St. Mungo's started treating non-magical ailments, we healers knew there was a chance that we'd eventually acquire a case of child abuse. We assumed that the child would be a muggle born and that they would be eleven. We never thought that our first case would be as severe as yours is.”

Harry couldn't look up at anyone. The shame that washed over Harry threatened to overwhelm him as his stomach clenched in knots. He knew that the healer wasn't blaming him at all but Harry still felt the guilt that he had let it go for so long. That he had let the abuse continue without telling anyone. Ron and Hermione had suspected but they could never get any solid evidence. He had always been so careful until he had finally told his godfathers. Harry could hear the rustling of some paper. “You had multiple bones that showed repeated breaking and healing. Three of which, never healed properly. I vanished and regrew them while you were asleep. You showed signs of scurvy and other diseases associated with malnutrition. This is very serious. Harry?” Said boy looked up to the Healer, who had a small smile on his face. “Your godfathers and I aren't mad at you. However, as a Healer I worry about children who have suffered like you. Do you have any knowledge in why something this severe was over looked?”

Harry looked between Sirius and Remus, “Do I have to explain?”

Sirius nodded and Remus gave him a pained smile, “If you explain it to Healer Marlowe, I promise you won't have to explain it again. Tonks is here and she can explain it to her boss.”

Harry slowly nodded and took a deep breath, “Well, none of the muggles around us ever really asked about me. My uncle had them all convinced that I was a dangerous lunatic before I could even walk. Even my primary school teachers eventually got frustrated with me. I did amazing in class but I wouldn't do any homework and I would purposefully barely pass all of my tests. I wasn't allowed to do better than my cousin. I didn't even realize that what I was going through was a type of abuse until I went to Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione knew that my living family was a touchy subject. I didn't tell them anything though and they didn't push. Near the end of my first year Ron said that I should ask Dumbledore if I could stay at Hogwarts over the summer, like I did with the other holidays. He even suggested staying at his house. I thought the idea was brilliant,” Harry's smile grew as he thought of that first year with Ron and Hermione. Then he frowned, “I begged Dumbledore to not make me go back. I don't remember if I actually told him about the abuse though. Didn't matter if I did though. The Headmaster just patted my head and said I had to go back.”

“Here you are Harry,” Tonks said softly. Harry took the cup he was offered with a muttered thanks and took a large gulp of the cold water.

“That summer Ron and the twins rescued me in a flying Ford Angela. But...uh... I never talked to anyone about leaving my aunt and uncle's house after that one time with Dumbledore. Well, not until last December when I told Sirius and Remus.”

“How did no one at Hogwarts notice though?” Healer Marlowe asked.

Harry shrugged, “I kept to myself mostly. I never talked about my relatives at school. I avoided the Hospital Wing unless strictly necessary and by then any injury I still had could be chalked up to a Quidditch match. I'm not sure how the malnutrition went unnoticed though. I think people just assumed I was skinny.” Harry finished off the water and handed Tonks the empty cup back.

“Well, I'm sorry this has happened to you Harry, but we are going to do everything we can to correct it. I have three more potions for you to take, but you need to eat first.” There was a pause as Tonks immediately handed Harry a sandwich. The healer waited until he took a bite of food before asking, “Do you know what a magical inheritance is?”

Harry nodded and swallowed, “Yeah, Ron told me about it. You see, Hermione saw it mentioned in a book and demanded Ron explain more about it. Ron's got a bunch of older brothers so he's seen them before.” Harry took another bite before explaining all that he knew about magical inheritances. “Uh, usually it's just a magical boost. I think he said it was your magical core expanding to its full potential. Sometimes though, you could come into a creature inheritance. Ron didn't know too much about that though. There hasn't been a creature inheritance in the Weasley family in generations. He said that both types of inheritances are sometimes painful depending on the amount your core expands or what kind creature you are. I think he said that it happens on your seventeenth birthday.”

Everyone around him nodded. All silently telling him that he had the right information. “That's right,” Remus said with a smile. Remus always did that. He always smiled with pride when Harry did something good or said something wise. Harry figured it had something to do with Moony and the instincts the werewolf had.

The raven haired boy frowned, “Wait, did I already have my inheritance while I was asleep?”

“No. You see. Someone put a charm on you. One to delay your inheritance,” The healer quietly explained as if he was breaking some horrible news that would result in his death. Instantly, Harry tensed as panic started to seep in.

“Why does that sound like a bad thing?”

“Well, it is.” While the Healer explained, Harry ate. Whenever he finished one sandwich Tonks would either hand him a cup of water again or another sandwich. “Witches and Wizards with even partially blocked inheritances have been known to go mad with conflicting thoughts and magic. You see, sometimes their body will try to use more magic that it can handle because your body knows how much power your core can sustain. People with a creature inheritance will feel the instincts of that creature mentally but have no drive or even want to do anything about it. It can drive anyone mad to have such conflicting thoughts in their head.”

“Who would do such a thing?” Sirius pulled Harry in further by his waist and rested his chin on top of Harry's head. Harry never felt Sirius be this affectionate or protective before. Then again, the man just saved him from a abusive home and was being told that his godson had a potentially dangerous charm placed on him.

“Well, I know in times of war Aurors would put charms on their children to make them look like squibs.” Everyone turned to Tonks as she spoke. She handed Harry the last sandwich before continuing with her story. “They'd place them in a muggle home until it was safe. It went out of practice when they realized what happened to the children of Aurors who died. Sometimes the magic would die with them and everything would be fine but sometimes it didn't and the children went mad. No one could really explain why though. Only theories.”

“Do I still have the charm on me?” Harry asked the healer once he'd finished the sandwich.

“Yes, I didn't want to take it off until you were awake and knew what was happening. We also need to wait at least an hour after you take those potions.”

“But then we can take it off?”

“Of course,” Healer Marlowe said with a reassuring smile. “I'll come back around nine with Healer Smethwyck, he's the Healer-in-charge of the Creature Specialty floor. He is also an expert on creature inheritance and care. If you come into a creature inheritance, we will move you up to the first floor where he can help you better.” The Healer stood up and walked over to the bedside table that Tonks had been standing at. They traded spaces and Tonks sat back down in Sirius' old seat. The Healer picked up three vials and handed them to Harry one by one as he explained them all and watched Harry drink them. “This is your second and final dose to help with any lingering pain you may have. A fever reducer. Finally, a Lung Clearing Potion. Alright, good. I will be back in roughly an hour.”

~~

Harry was scared shitless. In case his magic lashed out, the Healers were the only ones allowed in the room while they took the charm off. Sirius, Remus, and Tonks were waiting outside for the all clear. Harry had met Healer Smethwyck back before he'd defeated Voldemort. Healer Smethwyck was the healer who found the anti-venom needed to cure the snake bite that Nagini had given Mr. Weasley.

“Are you ready Mr. Potter?” Healer Marlowe asked standing to Harry's left. Healer Smethwyck was standing to Harry's right.

“As ready as I'll ever be,” Harry said with a small nod. The two healers nodded and began chanting in what Harry assumed was Latin. Harry closed his eyes and held his breath. He could feel the warmth of the healers magic blanketing him. At first it was just a small itch on his left foot. Then slowly, the irritation spread to the other foot and then up his legs. By the time the unnamed irritation made its way to his calf, Harry's legs were throbbing in pain. Each pulse in his veins felt like another stab of a knife up his legs. It wasn't long before Harry passed out again.

 


	6. Part of Your World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's been three months. Three months to the day exactly. I ended up NOT having surgery but having a cardiac catheterization. From there they will at some point in the future schedule a surgery. Thank you for all the well wishes! I'm sorry this took so long but I also had summer classes and I just started my fall semester. I was going to wait to put this up until I finished the next chapter but it has already been three months and the next chapter is giving me hell. Thanks again to my Beta ReadyPlayerTwo!

Healer Marlowe said that they wouldn't be long. Ten minutes at most. Sirius could wait that long. After all, Remus and Tonks were there to distract him. Tonks was good at distracting people. Every time Sirius looked over at his cousin, she had changed her nose or her hair. How Tonks could do that with a straight face while talking to Remus, Sirius would never know. Remus and Tonks were currently discussing the differences between the Black Manor and Grimmauld Place. Sirius wasn't paying that much attention, he just leaned against the wall and watched the door in front of him. Harry would be okay.

Not five minutes later the wispy white smoke of a patronus slowly emerged through the door. Once out the, very large, bear patronus waited a brief moment. After regarding the three people there it turned and started to run down the hall. Before the animagus realized that he'd moved, Remus had jumped in front of him. “We can't go in there,” The werewolf said.

“They needed to send out a patronus, Remus!” Sirius' voice was harsh and urgent. “I can't just sit here when I could be helping.”

“Out of the way,” Came Smethwyck's curt voice. Remus and Sirius quickly jumped out of the way of the two healers. Healer Smethwyck came out first guiding Harry's floating mattress with his wand. Harry looked to be unconscious with a hospital blanket covering the teen up to his chin. Healer Marlowe followed the mattress as he too helped to keep it levitated with his wand. “To the lift now.”

Sirius followed quickly beside Healer Marlowe. He could feel Remus beside him while Tonks and the Auror on security were following closely behind them. Sirius tried his best to keep silent, not really knowing what to say. St. Mungo's was busier now that it was normal waking hours, but no one seemed to notice the group quickly walk down the hall into the main room before turning straight for the lift. Once they were all on the lift going up Sirius couldn't keep quiet any longer, “What's wrong with Harry? Were you able to take the charm off? Why is he unconscious again?”

“The charm is off now,” Healer Marlowe said in the cramped lift. Unlike the lifts at the Ministry, this was a smooth ride. “We're moving him up to the first floor where Healer Smethwyck can properly care for him.”

The animagus blinked, trying to process what had been said. The charm was off. Good. Healer Smethwyck had to care for him. That meant Harry had had a creature inheritance. Okay. Fine. No big deal. Remus was a werewolf. He was a werewolf's mate. They could handle this.

“I assure you, Mr. Potter being unconscious is a good thing right now.” Sirius furrowed his brow in confusion as Healer Smethwyck spoke. “But we don't have a lot of time to explain. First priority is getting him into a suitable living space. I will explain everything once I know he is settled in.”

Sirius glanced over at Remus, who looked back and seemed to be thinking in the same direction. 'A suitible living space' did not sound good. What kind of creature required a special living space? Sirius knew Remus was already running through a mental list of creature inheritances and checking off all the ones that didn't fit the very few clues they had so far. If anyone knew how to help Harry deal with a surprise creature inheritance, it would be Remus. He just hoped Harry would be able to attend school by September. Sirius knew his godson would hate to miss out on his last year.

Too lost in thought, Sirius hadn't noticed that the lift had stopped. It wasn't until they passed a large reception desk that he realized Remus was pulling him along. Quietly, they headed through two double doors that were marked as 'In Patient Rooms'. Inside the double doors was a giant room with doors and small windows dotted around the walls. Another reception desk sat in the middle where a few Trainee Healers sat and a Healer or two were talking and writing in folders of parchment.

One woman in the Healer issued lime-green robes and a man with the Trainee dark green robes rushed out from behind the large reception desk. The woman was the only one to speak but the Trainee followed dutifully behind her. “Your patronus was vague as usual Smethwyck.”

“Did you prepare the room like I asked?”

The woman rolled her eyes and began to walk away. “Of course I did. 'Back room. Halfway filled with warm water.' You really must learn how to send a patronus with more than just two sentences. I held off on the salt. Since you didn't mention which creature I figured it would be easier to add the salt in rather than try to take it out.” The room seemed to be a giant triangle with the reception in the middle and the base of the triangle in the back, which was where they all headed. “The Trainees are making bets you know.”

“Were any of them right?” Healer Marlowe asked with an amused grin.

The woman glanced over at Harry as they walked, studying him. “Well, I can't see anything but his head. However, considering that he is unconscious, I would say no. None of them guessed correctly. Again.”

About halfway along the back wall was their destination. On the door read 'Room 15 Unoccupied'. As the healers led Harry and his floating mattress in the sign changed to read 'Room 15 Occupied. Please knock before entering as patient may not respond well to a sudden unexpected appearance.'. The room inside was bright from a large window that depicted a beautiful London skyline. Sirius knew it was just a wall magicked to look like a window to the outside world, but it was still a nice comfort for patients. The room didn't have a bed. Instead, just to the right of the door, there was a mini pool that looked like it had been dug into the floor. It took up the entire right side of the room. If Sirius had to guess it was about seven or eight feet long with a two or three foot width. One side of the pool had a little step someone could use to sit on. It looked to be about only three feet deep but the water just barely covered the step by an inch. To the left of the door was a very clean looking couch that could be folded out to make a bed, two chairs, and a desk.

Sirius turned to look back at Harry to find the healers already lifting him off of the mattress and down into the water. Shock was the first thing he felt, almost exactly like when he, James, and Peter first saw Remus' transformation into the wolf. Harry didn't have legs. Instead Harry had a deep dull avocado green fin. A fin. Well, it certainly explained the mini pool. Sirius couldn't take his eyes off his godson as the healers set him down into the water, head resting on the ledge. His overly large shirt now getting soaking wet. “Remus? Have I gone crazy?”

“No,” Was Remus' quick reply then grabbed Sirius' hand. “He's a Siren. That's good.”

There was a pause while the healers made sure he wouldn't fall into the water and drown. While Harry probably wouldn't drown now, it would still suck to wake up underwater. “Wait, Really? But Sirens are a category four dangerous creature,” Tonks piped up. “Harry already has enemies in the Ministry. They can use this against him.”

“That's not what I meant. Sirens aren't rare creatures. Not as common as Veela or Elves but common enough so that we can easily get any information we need to help Harry with this.” Remus added with a roll of his eyes, “ Anyways, Unicorns are category four creatures. Honestly, the Ministry really needs to re-evaluate those categories. The only reason that Sirens are so high up is because when they are injured they send out a call to any near by dominant being that can help them. Magical or Muggle. It's not their fault if a few muggles drove ships into a rocky shore.” Sirius opened his mouth to draw the comparison of a werewolf hurting someone while in wolf form but closed his mouth, knowing that Remus wouldn't appreciate it.

“Thank you Healer Marlowe,” Healer Smethwyck stood once they had Harry safely in the pool. The Trainee healer quietly vanished the mattress with a flick of his wand. “Send your report up and I'll read through it before Mr. Potter wakes up.” Healer Marlowe nodded in agreement and said he'd send it up as soon as possible then left with the other Healer and Trainee. Then the Healer took a seat at the desk and faced the three other occupants in the room, the Auror bodyguard already standing watch outside. “As you can tell, Mr. Potter came into a Siren inheritance. He'll have to register with the Ministry. I'll start the paperwork while he is asleep. As a Lord and his Godfather, you can vouch for him so he can return to school in September. Now, how much do you know about Sirens?”

Sirius sat down on the couch in the room, not taking his eyes off Harry's sleeping form. “Not very much. I know they are considered dark creatures and like Tonks said they are a category four. I know he wont have legs when he's in water now.” Remus took the seat beside Sirius while Tonks took one of the chairs.

“If I remember correctly, like most fish, Sirens have a family unit called a 'school',” Apparently it was Remus' turn to talk. Which was probably a good thing. Being a creature himself, Remus might actually know more about what Harry was going to be going through. “Unlike a pack, a school hierarchically system is based on age rather than rank. The oldest in the family will lead the school from one place to another.” Healer Smethwyck was nodding in agreement. “A Siren is either dominant or submissive. Something that is easily indicated by the coloring of their...scales?”

“That's correct. Harry is a submissive Siren. You can tell by the dark green of his scales. If he was dominant, his scales would be a bright color such as lime green or yellow or a light blue even. Do you know how a newly awakened Siren finds his school?” Confused, Sirius shook his head. Most, if not all, of his knowledge on creatures were on werewolves. “They will go to sleep, like Harry is now, and then wake up. A Siren will then ask the closest people to him if they are part of his school. Usually they will first search for their parents. When they've found someone, usually at least two people, who are part of his school they will commit their scent to memory. No one knows why exactly Sirens do this as it's something that is instinctive for them. When you next talk to Mr. Potter, he won't act like himself because he'll be running on instinct. Once he commits your scents to memory he'll return back to his normal self. However, from now on whenever he's around someone you are familiar with he will ask whoever is oldest if that person is part of their school. It may confuse Harry when he asks this; just assure him that it is a normal instinct. However, it is very important that you only allow people who are trust worthy into his school. If someone who is in his school betrays him, it will take a while for him to realize that he is no longer safe. His instinct will be to trust every single person in his school.”

“Will he know that I'm a werewolf? I know some creatures can sense it or smell it in my scent,” Remus asked.

“He will. And it may scare him,” The Healer said solemnly. “You'll need to assure him that you are safe. As an Alpha, this shouldn't be too difficult. All you need to do is say that you welcome him into your pack and offer him protection. Another Alpha I know said the act of accepting another creature into your pack is instinctive, epically when that creature is a submissive. It is very important that when you're introducing yourselves to him that you use your relationship to him. Alpha. Godfather.” There was a soft sound of water being disturbed and when Sirius looked over at Harry, he seemed to be waking up. “Well, no time like the present.”

“Wait you're leaving!?” Sirius exclaimed as the healer headed to the door.

“I'm not part of his school, I can't be here when he first wakes up.” Without another word the healer left and closed the door behind him.

“Mum? Dad?” Sirius looked back to Harry. He was looking around, seeming to take in his surroundings. When Harry's eyes finally landed on them sitting on the couch, his eyes widened. “Werewolf! No! Mum! Dad!” Well, this was going to go splendid.

Remus jumped up and moved forward, startling everyone in the room including Harry, who was pressed against the back wall of the pool as far from Remus as he could get. “I, Alpha Remus Lupin, welcome you to the Lupin pack.” There was silence as everyone held their breath.

“Alpha?” Harry's head was tilted to the side as if trying to process what was being said to him. Which made sense if a Siren's hierarchy was based on age rather than rank.

“Alpha,” Remus nodded. The tension in Harry's shoulders seemed to melt at that. Sirius got up off the couch and sat at the edge of Harry's pool. His godson wasn't against the wall but he wasn’t sitting near them either.

“Dad?” This was just heartbreaking to watch. Like something bad happening in slow motion. Knowing full well that you should rush in and stop it but are too transfixed to do anything but watch. Harry had such hopeful eyes when he asked Remus that simple question. It made Sirius want to bring Voldemort back just so he could kill the vile bald man himself.

“No. Alpha.” Harry looked so heartbroken, no matter how nicely Remus had said it. Then, Harry turned to Sirius and asked the exact same thing. Sirius couldn't bring himself to tell him. No, he wasn't Harry's father but damn it, he didn't want to tell the newly awakened Siren that. Sirius actually considered telling Harry that he was his father. He sighed, knowing it wouldn't be fair to put Harry though that.

“Alpha's mate. Godfather.”

“Godfather?” Again, Harry's head was tilted to the side. Not as much as when he was trying to process the term 'Alpha' but still. Sirius nodded, which Harry mimicked slightly. “Mum?” Sirius followed Harry's eyes sight and saw that Tonks was still sitting in the chair. She looked like she was trying to hold the tears back. Apparently, this was just going to be an emotional day all around.

“Beta to the Lupin pack.” The term 'Beta' was another one that made Harry tilt his head and scrunch his face in confusion. After another awkward back and forth of 'Beta' and 'Yes' between Harry and Tonks then Harry and Remus, Harry seemed to understand the word and accept that Tonks was part of his school, strange rank and all.

Harry took a few minutes to look around the room. Searching. Then he looked between Sirius and Remus, not seeming to know who to ask. “Mum? Dad?” Sirius loathed that the Siren was so sure his parents would just appear out of no where. He might as well be torturing himself with the back and forth hope and distraught.

When no one seemed to be able to answer him, Harry finally seemed to realize that he didn't have any parents. Silent tears started to trickle down his cheeks. “Oh cub. I'm so sorry,” Sirius opened his arms and Harry finally swam closer so he could get the comfort he needed.

 


	7. What's Wrong with Remus?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sooo..... It's been a few months. I had my surgery a little over a month ago, thankfully I was home in time for Christmas. This chapter was supposed to be a two part-er. Part one in Harry's POV and part two in Blaise's POV. Blaise got carried away so he'll be in his very own chapter! There is a little part with Dudley in it at the end. Tell me in the comments what you think about him coming to the Wizarding World. I haven't decided if I want to bring him in or not. I'm hoping to give you all Chapter 8 within the month. Fingers crossed.
> 
> As always, beta-d by the lovely Ready_Player_Two

 

 

Harry blinked, trying to figure out why his face was wet and why his eyes felt puffy. He tried to adjust how he was sitting, somehow his face was laying against someone's chest, but noticed something odd. His legs were not working. Well, not not working but not working in the way that Harry had come to understand that legs generally worked. Pushing away from the chest that turned out to be Sirius, Harry looked around and noticed a few things. First, he was in a different room. Second, he was in a pool of water. Third, there was something green where his legs should be.

 

“Sirius?” Harry asked slowly, still staring at the green thing under the water that was somehow attached to his torso. Examining closer, he could see what looked like small green scales dotting from where his hips used to be up towards his lower torso. The raven haired teen was confused because he certainly remembered having legs. “Where are my legs? And....why do I have a tail?”

 

“Well, technically, it's a fin.” Sirius' tone slowly turned cheerful as he smiled at his own joke. Harry did not feel comforted by his godfather's new demeanor. In fact, now that it had sunk into his mind that his legs were missing, the fact that Sirius just avoided the question caused a rather frustrated form of panic to settle into Harry's voice.

 

“That doesn't answer my question!” He snapped.

 

Remus moved to sit down next to the edge of the pool before putting a calming hand on Harry's shoulder, “Harry, you need to calm down. Look at me and take deep breaths.” Harry looked up into Remus' warm brown eyes and did as the wolf directed. Once Harry was able to breathe without glaring daggers, Remus spoke again, “Harry, you came into a creature inheritance.” Remus' voice was slow and even which helped to remind the teen to stay calm.

 

Harry furrowed his brow in confusion, looking back down to the tail that he was now sporting. He took another deep breath as he tried to process the information. This was fine. They all knew there was a chance that he'd come into a creature inheritance. The healers had even warned them, which was why they had a Creature Specialist in the room when they took the block off. Harry tried to work out what exact sort of inheritance he came into. If he didn't know any better he'd say he was a mermaid from muggle myths. But that couldn't be right. Well, yes it could. After all, he was a wizard and that was just a myth to muggles. He looked back up to his godfathers and before he could ask Remus spoke and answered the unasked question, “You came into a Siren inheritance. Your legs morphed into the fin you see.”

 

“A Siren?” Harry had no clue what a Siren was; he hadn't learned about them at Hogwarts, at least. The name was familiar though, so maybe Siren's were something in muggle mythology.

 

Sirius nodded,“Yeah. But they aren't rare or anything. At least according to Remus. We'll get a bunch of books. It'll be fine!”

 

Harry blinked, unsure how Sirius could be this cheerful or dismissive given the circumstances, “How? I don't...have legs.”

 

“You don't need legs to swim.”

 

“I need them to ride a broom. And, oh I don't know, walk.” Sirius sniggered at Harry's phrasing with a big smile. This,again, irritated Harry and he pouted before pushing away from his godfather. Seeing Harry's pout, of course, caused Sirius to fall into fits of laughter. Harry, not knowing how to move with his new fin, fell into the water after pushing off the seat he was on but was able to grab onto the side of the pool before his head went underwater. Which, again, made Sirius laugh that much harder.

 

“Sirius hush,” Remus admonished, flicking his wand towards his mate effectively muting the man. He reached out to help Harry move around the pool and get his bearings. It took a few minutes but Remus was successfully able to help Harry back onto his underwater seat. Once Harry was secure, Remus removed his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants. “Harry, this is only temporary.” Harry glared over at the now silent but still laughing Sirius, and Tonks who was pointing and giggling at her cousin. “Once your fin is dry it will morph back into your legs.” Harry nodded, a little more relaxed with Remus' assurance that everything was fine, and watched as the man put his feet in the water to be closer to him.

 

“Mr. Lupin is correct,” Harry looked over to where Healer Smethwyck was near the door that Harry assumed led to the rest of the hospital. He hadn't even heard the healer come into the room. The healer moved over to the desk in the corner of the room, stepping around where Sirius was sitting on the floor and took a seat in the chair. “Siren's can, after some practice, even control their ability to change from Siren form into their human form.”

 

“Great,” Harry said, chuckling at the image his godfather made. Sirius was now clearly pouting, sticking his tongue out at Remus. Harry turned his attention to the healer. “So, does that mean I can leave soon?”

 

“Well, no. You're in no condition to leave right now. I'd say you will need at least a week of hospital stay,” Smethwyck turned to the notes that he set down. As he spoke, the healer took out what looked like a form and held it up in the air before letting go. After snapping his fingers a quill floated to the parchment and started writing. What the form was for was anyone’s guess. Harry definitely couldn't see what was being written from the pool he sat in. “I've read over the report that Healer Marlowe made and there are many things concerning.” Harry watched as Smethwyck picked up the notes and turned the seat so that he was facing them, the quill and parchment still writing and floating by the healer's head. “I've had my assistant make a list of books that I think will help you all with the changes and instincts that Mr. Potter will be going through.”

 

“Thank you Healer Smethwyck.”

 

“Wait....A week?” Harry gasped as he seemed to have just registered what the healer said. “It can't take that long to get my legs back!” Harry looked from Smethwyck to Remus then back to Smethwyck. The healer seemed to be serious in what he was saying but Harry couldn't wait that long. “But....the wedding. Bill and Fleur. It's tomorrow! Can't you just....I don't know....do a spell or give me a potion or something?”

 

“Harry, it'll take as long as it needs to take. You need to get well again. The Weasleys will understand and so will Fleur. Remember, she's a Veela. She knows how creature inheritances work.”`

 

“But....I promised Fleur I'd be there. She sent me and Victor a letter as soon as Bill proposed to make sure we'd come,” A Veela finding their mate was a joyous thing, or so he'd read. It was also going to be the first wedding Harry had ever been to. However, the look on Remus' face told him that there was no way the werewolf would let him leave the hospital, much less go to the wedding without Healer Smethwyck's go ahead. With a sigh, Harry looked away from everyone in the room. He had been so excited when he received Fleur's letter but now he was kind of bummed out. Harry looked down to his tail, well fin, and saw something strange that he hadn't noticed before. “Why are some of my scales white?”

 

“That, Mr. Potter, is the main reason why you must stay here.”

 

“They feel really...wrong,” He couldn't really explain it; it was just a feeling that Harry had. He quickly grabbed the fin and brought it above the water to take a closer look at it. The fin was kind of interesting, or weird depending on how you looked at it, because it bent at his hips and again halfway down. It was very similar to how his hips and knees worked when he had had legs but he saw nothing that indicated anything remotely like a knee joint. Looking closely, his scales were nearly identical to that of fish scales. Every few scales though were these scales that were white instead of the dark green that the rest of them appeared to be. When he touched the white scales they didn't feel like they were on top of the scales but were the scales themselves. They also had an almost gritty texture that the rest of the scales didn't have. “These scales don't feel right... Why are they white?”

 

“The white pigment of your scales is indicating your malnutrition, among other things,” Smethwyck put his notes down before explaining in earnest. “When Sirens get sick or hurt some of their scales will turn white. A healthy Siren won't have any white in their scales.”

 

“So, this is my body's way of saying something is wrong.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

Everything was silent as they all began to process the implications of what the healer was implying. After all, Remus and Sirius weren't too sure of the extent of the abuse but had a very good idea. What would this mean in the future? Would Harry always carry around signs of his abuse or would they eventually fade away with time? After all, it wasn't like Harry only had a few white scales. There were almost just as many white scales as there were dark green ones. After a few minutes, Harry spoke up and asked what everyone in the room was thinking, “You said the white is reflecting my abuse. Does that mean they'll go away now that I'm not living with my Aunt and Uncle?”

 

Healer Smethwyck sighed, running a hand through his graying hair. “It's not that simple Mr. Potter. There has never been a case of abuse like this in the Wizarding World. For us, abuse is caused through curses if it does happen. It could take years to reverse the effects and some things, like your height, will never get repaired.”

 

“Does that mean the white scales will never go away?” Tonks asked the healer. Out of the corner of his eyes Harry watched Sirius as he stopped making faces at Remus to pull out his wand, more than likely to end the Silencio.

 

“I just don't know. I'm afraid we're just going to have to play this by ear.” Smethwyck frowned, turning back to the notes in his hand. “However, we are going to try our best to repair everything and get Mr. Potter back home and ready for school. To start with, I would like to run another diagnostic scan to make sure the inheritance didn't cause any damage or reverse the work that Healer Marlowe has already done.” The quill that had been filling out a form stopped and floated down in front of the Healer's face. “Ah, good.” Smethwyck waved his hand and the form duplicated. “Before we do that though I have Mr. Potter's registration forms completed. I just need Lord Black to sign them and I'll send them off to both the Ministy and Hogwarts.

 

“Here, why don't I go and get the books. You don't need me in here crowding up the place and I can give my boss an update. It shouldn't take more than two hours.” Tonks said, standing up. Her hair was back to its usual bubblegum pink. “You said your assistant was making a list, right?”

 

“That's correct.”

 

“Here take this. It's tied to the main Black Vault. I don't care how long the list is. We need everything we can get our hands on,” Sirius said as he took out a ornate brass key and handed it to Tonks. Then he went over to Healer Smethwyck to sign the forms.

 

“Don't stay out too long. I want you back before sundown,” Remus ordered as Tonks made her way to the hospital room door.

 

“Yes 'Alpha'. Want anything while I'm out Harry?”

 

“Might as well get started on my summer assignments while I'm stuck here,” Harry said with a resigned sigh. Madam Pomfrey could barely keep him in the Hospital Wing for a few days, how was Harry supposed to stay at St. Mungos for a week or maybe even more? “It's in my trunk; right on top. Treacle Tart would be fantastic if you can manage it.”

 

“I'll see what I can do.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I said no Harry!”

 

Harry sighed in frustration. He and Remus had been arguing for a good half an hour now about the wedding. Tonks and Sirius were quietly talking on the small sofa in the room. Harry was still trying to get the hang of swimming so he was still sitting on his underwater perch and Remus was kneeling on the floor next to the pool's edge. “You have to go! How else is Fleur supposed to get my wedding gift? You already said I couldn't go!”

 

“We'll mail it like all the other guests who can't make it,” Remus tried to reason while keeping his temper in check.

 

The Siren smiled brightly and cheerfully said in a sarcastic manner, “Oh, yes, let's send a hundred galleons and the keys to a hunting cabin, that's been in the Potter family since before they were the Prevells, through the post.” Remus rolled his eyes at him and Harry swore he could hear Tonks giggle. He glared up at the werewolf, “We can't do that! Anyway, if you don't go how else am I supposed to know what happened?”

 

Frustrated, Remus looked behind him at his mate and Beta, “Sirius, help me with your godson!”

 

Harry looked over at Sirius to see him with a great big smile, watching them argue with Tonks, “Nah, you seem to have everything under control 'Alpha'.”

 

Harry took a deep breath to calm down while Remus' back was turned, still glaring at Sirius. It was time to change tactics “Please?” Harry waited until Remus turned to look at him before he continued his plea, “You don't have to stay for the whole thing. Just for the ceremony so I can watch it in a pensive. And just enough of the reception that you can give Bill and Fleur their present.”

 

The werewolf ran a hand through his hair, confessing after a long sigh, “Harry, the full moon is coming up. I don't want to leave you anymore than I have to.”

 

“It's only one night and the full moon isn't for another week!”

 

“Harry, I don't want you alone here. I don't like how Dumbledore was trying to get in and I'd prefer it if we stayed with you until you were released.”

 

“Moony, it is only one night,” Sirius reminded the werewolf, seeming to have had enough of their bickering. “Tonks can stay with him.”

 

“Yeah!” Tonks enthused with a giant grin. Her bubble gum hair spiking up a little as she went on. “I can help him with his summer work and make sure no one comes in.”

 

“I don't like this.”

 

“So you'll go?” Harry watched as Remus closed his eyes, seeming to struggle with his inner wolf. Which, he was starting to understand more. The Siren himself was having conflicting thoughts telling him to submit to the older member of his school. But, Harry wanted so badly to see the wedding that he was going to miss and the only way to do that was in a pensive. Plus, realistically, sending his present through the post was absurd. Yes, Hedwig could do it but it the Goblins were very adamant about how to handle the keys.

 

“Yes,” The Alpha finally groaned out as he ran a hand through his hair, “but you have to stay in the room and Tonks you promise me that no one will get in here but Healer Smethwyck.”

 

“With permission from the healer I can put wards up on the door to limit access to anyone not us or the Healer Smethwyck and his assistant.” Tonks dismissively said with a wave of her hand. She turned to her cousin and quickly hissed, “Is he always like this before a full moon? He seemed fine last month.”

 

“Nah, Remus only gets this way if he's stressed. He was worse when James and Lily decided to go into hiding. That entire month he was a right state. I half expected Moony to show up whenever I turned around, full moon or not.”

 

“Have you always had trouble with your wolf, Mr. Lupin?” Harry jumped upon hearing his healer's voice. He hadn't heard to old man come in and wasn't sure how long he had been there. Smethwyck had his Quick Quills making notes beside him as he watched Harry's godfather with growing curiosity.

 

“Huh? No. Well, yes and no,” Remus, flustered by the question, tried to quickly explain himself. He took a deep breath and stood. “You see, the Wolfsbane potion can only do so much to control that side of me. And since the potion is only designed for when the wolf is out, I still feel the thoughts and instincts during the rest of the month.”

 

“Because it's not designed to be taken unless you've transformed or are about to.” The healer mused in agreement. The quill floating beside him writing in rapid speeds as Remus talked. “Exactly how long have you been a werewolf?”

 

“Since I was four or five. A little over thirty years. Why?”

 

“And how long have you been taking Wolfsbane1?” The Healer asked, seemingly ignoring the werewolf's question.

 

“Off and on for twelve years but I've been taking in constantly for the last four years.”

 

The old healer blinked; his Quick Quill stopping mid sentence to, if Harry didn't know any better, look at Remus. “Fascinating,” Smethwyck's voice was filled with bewilderment and the quill quickly went back to work. At a even faster pace, Harry noticed. “By off and on do you mean one month on and one month off or a few months on and a few off?”

 

“Uh. Sporadically,” Everyone watched as the healer began to circle Remus. Remus, trying not to get irritated in his confusion just watched as the healer walked around him. “I took it when I could afford someone to make it which wasn't very often.”

 

“Any adverse affects? Delusions, prolonged nausea, sudden change in diet such as unexplained cannibalistic cravings.” This was seriously starting to freak Harry out. Part of him, his new instinct he guessed, wanted to go to the deepest part of his pool and sit at the bottom but instead he looked to Sirius questioningly. The Siren was surprised to find how good that felt. It was like he knew, just knew that Sirius would make it better. So, despite the frankly disturbing questions that the healer was saying, Harry found himself completely calm.

 

“What? No! Nono! Not anything like that at all.”

 

“Really? Are you sure?”

 

“Healer Smethwyck, what's going on?” Sirius demanded, taking a step closer to the man. “What do you mean cannibalistic cravings?”

 

“Well, Lord Black, Mr. Lupin here has been taking the Wolfsbane potion off and on for the past sixteen years when we Healers only recommend at most two years on the potion. If you can even call it a recommendation.”

 

“What are you talking about? I thought Wolfsbane potion was to be taken once a day during the three day full moon cycle.”

 

“That's right,” The Healer nodded before taking the parchment that held his notes from the air. The quill followed the healer until he was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room where it laid itself on the table. Smethwyck pulled a pair of wire rimmed glasses out from an inner robe pocket to put them on before reading his notes. “However, when it was first invented the Ministry made it so any werewolf that wanted a job was forced to take it. They grasped onto what they saw as a cure without really caring the effects because it would keep society safe.” At this point everyone was staring dumbly at the healer. Harry himself was confused. What did this mean? Was the potion safe? Had it ever been safe? Was that the reason werewolves like Fenrir were so adamantly against the Ministry? His mind was swimming with questions. Finally, Smethwyck looked up from his parchment and spoke again, “It has become so prevalent in our culture now that no one ever thought to ask if the Ministry ever had it tested by Healers. Healers who would've never approved newly made untested potion for public use.”

 

There was a long silence before Tonks blurted out with a passion, her hair turning a vivid shade of red, “You mean to tell me that the Ministry has been mandating an untested and possibly dangerous potion for how long?”

 

“Sixteen years. We just started running human testing these last five years.”

 

“And this is legal?” Harry's Godfather gasped out, grabbing a hold of Remus' hand. Remus, Harry noted, seemed out of it. He was staring at the healer as if he was a ghost.

 

“Oh yes. Ethical, no, but legal. We've been trying to get the Ministry to change its views but all they see is a Dark Creature.” Smethwyck turned back to his notes and picked up a different quill before asking, “Are you associated with a pack Mr. Lupin?”

 

“No, not really. I just have my own small pack.”

 

“How many werewolves are in it?”

 

“Just me.”

 

Harry watched Remus, taking note of his monotone voice. Harry wasn't sure if the man was really processing what was going on or what what being said. He sounded so dejected, like a wounded animal might. “You, Mr. Lupin, should be insane right now. I'm surprised you're standing up.” Smethwyck snapped his fingers and the Quick Quill shot back up and resumed writing on a fresh parchment that the healer held in his hand. Seemingly determined, Smethwyck stood up and started to walk to the door. “Alright, I'm going to start a file for you and get a hold of some of my Alpha contacts.”

 

“No!” Remus grabbed the Healer's arm before he could get passed him. “I can't ask you to do that. You have to help Harry.” Remus' out of nowhere explosion made the Siren jump but after thinking on the werewolf's words, it made sense. Remus was an Alpha; first and foremost pack came first.

 

After a few minutes of silence, where the Healer and Werewolf had a staring contest, Sirius slowly pulled Remus' hand off the healer and quietly questioned, “Will getting a hold of these other Alpha's and going off the Wolfsbane harm my mate?”

 

“We have more important-”

 

“No,” The healer said, ignoring Remus. “It will only help him. It will hurt in the short term. He's been on it for five years straight, getting his body accustomed to being without the potion will be a sort of withdrawal but the potion would eventually, if our theories are correct, kill the wolf inside him leaving half a man behind. Having half of your soul ripped out isn't pretty. You might as well just be Kissed.”

 

“Then do whatever you have to. Just make sure my godson and mate are okay.”

 

“Sirius-”

 

“I spent twelve years in Azkaban not knowing if you were dead or alive,” Sirius turned towards Remus and was talking in a quiet voice. “If Healer Smethwyck says that that potion will kill you then you can't keep taking it,” Harry could see that his godfather was trying to reason with his mate. “I know you're worried about Harry but the Healers are already doing everything they can to help him and I can't spend another minute wondering if and when you'll die. I did that enough in Azkaban.” Remus gave Smethwyck a quick nod before pulling Sirius into his arms.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Sirius, its nearly ten now.”

 

Blinking from his spot on the magically enlarged pull out couch, he looked around the semi-dark room, “Right, Tonks Did you bring the mirror like I asked?” Tonks wordlessly handed over the item in question before returning to her chair that she had moved to beside the door. Sirius waited until Remus put his book down and waved his wand to with a quiet _Lumos_ before turning his attention back to the mirror, “Show me Dudley Dursley.”

 

It didn't take as long as the Animagus thought it would. The slightly rounded face of Harry's cousin came into view quickly. Dudley seemed to also be sitting, at perhaps a desk, since Sirius could see the rest of the boy's room behind him,“Hello?”

 

“Dudley, its Sirius.”

 

“How's Harry?”

 

Sirius glanced over to where Harry was sleeping. The Siren had his lower half in the water while he slept in a floating chair. Tonks said it looked like a muggle 'pool floaty' with a net attached to a 'noodle'. Harry seemed comfortable so Sirius supposed he shouldn't complain. “We're at Saint Mungo's now and he's been seen by a specialist. I'd let you talk to him but he's asleep from all the potions he's on.”

 

“That's fine,” Came Dudley's reply with a shake small shake of his head. “I figured he'd be too out of it from recovering to talk. I'm just glad you were able to get him to a hospital.”

 

“How are things over there?” Inquired Remus. The werewolf moved closer so he could see into the mirror as well and Tonks moved from her chair by the door to sit next to them as well.

 

“Alright, I suppose. My parent's freaked out more than I expected actually.”

 

Sirius tilted his head in surprise, “Really?”

 

Dudley nodded before explaining, “Yeah, dad had the us searching the entire house for hours until he was certain that Harry didn't take anything with him that wasn't his or left anything 'freaky' behind.”

 

“Sounds like a nice guy.”

 

Sirius chuckled at Tonk's sarcasm. “Dudley, this is my cousin Tonks,” He said as he moved the mirror slightly so that Tonks was in view. “She's part of the military. Well, our version at least.”

 

“Nice to meet you. I'm Harry's cousin Dudley.”

 

As always, it seemed like Remus' protective urges were coming through and he quickly interrupted the pleasantries, “You didn't get in trouble though, did you?”

 

“No, mum and dad just think he packed up and ran away. I've been told that if anyone from 'his lot' comes around asking about him to pretend I don't have a cousin.” The boy had rolled his eyes at this and Sirius couldn't help but laugh. Remus just huffed, clearly still not impressed with Vernon Dursley. “Dad asked if I wanted my room back as a second second bedroom now that Harry's gone but I said no. Mum's already working on turning it into a craft room or some such.”

 

“Have they gone to the authorities or anything?”

 

“No, now that Harry's out of the house they just don't care what happens to him. Not that they really cared much beforehand.”

 

Before Remus could ask anymore questions Sirius decided to wrap things up, “Once Harry's feeling up to it I'll have him talk to you one night. As it is his injuries are very extensive. He spent most of the day sleeping.”

 

“Alright,” Dudley nodded. The blonde looked away from the mirror before turning back to look at the adults. “Um, is there anyway I can go see him one day? Harry said you guys are pretty uptight about non-magicals knowing about your world so I understand if I can't but I'd like to see him again. He still hasn't finished telling me of his adventures at school. We only got to his third year.”

 

Both Sirius and Remus looked over at Tonks since she was the Auror and would, out of all of them, be the one to know. Instead of giving a definitive answer though the woman shrugged, “I'll talk to my boss and see what I can do.

 

 

 

 

1Wolfsbane is a very difficult potion to create and wasn't invented until “after the mid-1970s”. Which is a very vague time and thus stupid. Since this fic is an AU set in current modern (2015) time I have to do math and just apply that math to my “time line”. You don't really have to worry about the time line as it doesn’t really affect anything except what type of technology is around. I'm having the Wolfsbane be invented the same year that Harry defeated Voldemort as a baby. So, like in the books, Wolfsbane wasn't around until after Remus graduated Hogwarts. So Remus has been taking Wolfsbane on and off since it was invented and then continuously since he taught at Hogwarts in Harry's third year. Albus promised him a limitless supply in order to get him to teach that year and since Sirius was technically the Black Lord at that point I'm just making it so that Sirius paid for the potion once Remus was out of a job.

 


	8. I've Got a Bad Feeling About This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all of your reviews! Keep them coming! There is a lot of French in this chapter but thankfully my editor/beta is a French Major. Translations will be in footnotes, if you click on the links they should take you to the translation and if you click again it should take you back to where you were reading! Would you all like to see more of Dudley? Let me know in your reviews! 
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter. Beta'd by Ready_Player_Two

 

Blaise Zabini did not want to be at the Weasley house dressed in his best dress robes. It wasn't that he had any reason to dislike the Weasleys, it was just, he was a Slytherin and they were Gryffindors. Which Blaise had pointed out to his mother, Coletta, and it did not end well for him. “William Weasley is Fleur's mate. You know how important a mate is for a Veela” Blaise couldn't really argue with that, hence, here he was sitting alone at a table inside of the giant tent in the Weasley backyard. The ceremony had just ended and people were milling about. His mother left to go find Madame Delacour after making sure he was seated for the start of the reception.

For a Dark Veela, and Veela alike, everything stops once they find their mate. Blaise would never forget the exact moment when his world turned on end. Guests were still getting to their seats before the ceremony began and he was sitting next to his mother trying to ignore the fact that he was at the Weasley residence when-

Butterscotch.

The air smelled of the sweet scent of butterscotch. Automatically Blaise sat up straighter and glanced around to look for the source. That was his mate. Where was the butterscotch? It took Blaise half the ceremony to concentrate enough to know that the scent was too faint for the person to actually be there. No, his mate's scent was carried here on someone’s clothes. Probably a family member or friend. He tried to hide his sudden disappointment at the realization but from the look his mother sent him, he was not successful. Blaise spent the remaining portion of the ceremony making a mental list of people who were not his mate. Which, thankfully, included every member of the Weasley family. Thank Merlin for small miracles.

“What are you doing here?” Blaise brought out of his musings by a snappish voice. He wasn't surprised that when he looked up he found a redhead, they seemed to be everywhere. The tent was like a giant sea of redheads. This particular redhead, though, dressed in particularly garish dresses robes, was one whom Blaise had hoped to avoid. Ronald, like all the other Weasleys, held no ounce of this mate's scent. Which meant no one that this redhead had recently come into contact with was Blaise's mate. Although, this had already been common knowledge to the Dark Veela.

“I was invited Weasley.” Ron Weasley let out a huff and Blaise smirked at the glare. “What? Was this a Gryffindor only thing?”

Before Ron could make his retort, Gabriella came bouncing over dressed beautifully as always. “Blaise, tu es ici!”1 She gave him a kiss on each cheek once he was standing, which he returned.

“Oui, Gabriella. Je ne rêverais pas de manquer le mariage de ta sœur.”2 The open mouthed taken aback look that Ron was now sporting was, in Blaise's opinion, worth having to be at the Weasley home.

“You speak French?”

“Yes. You don't?”3

“Boys! Be nice! Fleur does not want to 'ave any fighting. Non?4” Blaise nodded and Ron looked away with a small hum of agreement. “Blaise, you must come and meet William. Fleur would insist!” With a small smile Blaise gave a dismissing nod to Weasley and allowed the young girl to pull him towards the middle of the tent.

As the two of them walked Blaise couldn't help but notice all the people who didn't smell like his mate. During the ceremony he could smell the faint scent of rich butterscotch and a hint of fresh sea salt. Since then it was all Blaise could think about, which didn't really surprise him. Mates, after all, were very important to Veelas. He was puzzled by the scent though; since he came into his inheritance in November, Blaise hadn't smelled anything like it. Butterscotch and sea salt?

“Fleur! Blaise est ici! Est-ce que William veut de rencontrer lui maintenant ou plus tard?”5 Blaise chuckled at the small Veela-to-be. Gabriella's native French tended to came out with her excitement; the same thing use to happen to him with Italian. Not anymore though; he tried to speak as little Italian as he could ever since his father died. Blaise just couldn't take the look his mother got when Italian was spoken.

Looking from the small blonde to the bride and groom, Blaise couldn't help but smile. They looked and smelled like happiness and contentment and, well, like two mates should really. Fleur's face brightened up at the mention of him being there, which almost made him roll his eyes. After all, he was invited. “Blaise! It is so good of you to come. I am so glad you and Madame Zabini6 could come. Please, let me introduce you to my mate. Mon destin7, this is Blaise Zabini. Our mères8 went to school together at l'académie de magie de Beauxbâtons9 and became good friends. Blaise, this is my mate William Weasley. William is a well respected curse breaker for Gringotts.”

A well respected Weasley? That was shocking. But it was nice to know that if Fleur was mated to a Weasley, at least she lucked out with one that was making a name for himself. Blaise's smile was genuine, something he did not think would be happening on this day, as he and William shook hands. William didn't smell like he had any creature blood in him. He smelled like pure wizard which didn't really shock Blaise. He hadn't heard of the Weasley having any creature inheritances in their line. “I'm glad Fleur finally found you.”

“Thank you and please, call me Bill. I'm just sorry that there is no one here for you to really talk to except the Delacours,” The redhead said apologetically. It was one of the main reasons that Blaise didn't want to come. They only people he could talk to his age were bloody Gryffindors. Granger probably wasn't too bad to talk to if they kept to an educational discussion but Blaise wasn't in a big rush to find out. Draco would give him hell if he spent the entire evening talking to a Muggleborn. “Fleur wanted to invite the Malfoys but my mother put a stop to that. She's still upset with what happened in Ginny's first year.” Ah yes, the Chamber of Secrets incident.

Fleur immediately went into a rant about Mrs. Weasley in rapid French. The Veela had some vibrant words to describe her new mother-in-law. William closed his eyes with a frustrated sigh. “Fleur. Love. We talked about this.”

“I only agreed to not call her a 'Harpy'. Your mère does not know French. It is not like she knows I am insulting her.”

“You called her an overbearing Harpy. How is that different, Fleur? You can't keep calling my mother these things. You'll have to get along eventually. Do I even want to know what you called Ginny?”

“A strong beautiful woman.” At this point both Gabriella and Blaise, who had been trying not to laugh, burst into laughter at the 'Bullshit' look William gave Fleur. “Bien!10 Fine! I called her a pig-headed gold digger.”

“Just because she wants to marry someone who will let her pursue her dream of playing professional Quidditch, doesn't mean she's a gold digger.” Fluer shrugged her shoulders with a small 'Hmm' and William rolled his eyes slightly. “Oh, wait. There actually is someone here you might know. Merlin what was his name. Pucey? Yes, that's right Adrian Pucey. Ron about had a fit.”

“Adrian is here?” Blaise asked in confusion. Adrian was a fellow Slytherin, graduated two years ago.

The redhead nodded and started to look around, “He should be around here somewhere making sure the twins aren't getting into trouble. You might want to find him and save the poor man's sanity. Ah, there he is.” Blaise followed his line of sight and saw the tall Slytherin by one of the punch bowls with an arm around another redhead. If Blaise remembered correctly, that should be George. All of Slytherin knew about the relationship between the beater and chaser from rival teams. Apparently, Flint gave Adrian the third degree and threatened to kick him off the team when he had found out. Flint was all talk though. Adrian was one of the best players on the team. If Flint had kicked him off there would be no way Slytherin would score any points aside from catching the snitch. Adrian actually refused to resort to cheating to win, one of the two players on the team who played without doing so. “Oh bloody hell. What's Ron doing now?” Sure enough, there was Ronald Weasley storming up to the couple.

Blaise must have not been paying attention because the next thing he knew he was surrounded by the two distinct scents of werewolf and butterscotch. “I hope we aren't interrupting.” Blaise quickly turned to meet none other than his ex-Professor Remus Lupin along with Lord Black. He blinked, realizing that the two men were covered with his mate's scent.

“No. Not at all,” the dark skinned Veela11 said hesitantly. It was interesting. He had known Lupin was a werewolf since Professor Snape had made it known to the public but being able to smell it now that he had come into his inheritance was another thing entirely. “I was just about to rescue a fellow Slytherin.” He turned to Fleur with a smile. “Tu es belle comme toujours Fleur, toi aussi Gabriella.12 It was nice to meet you Bill.”

Blaise tried to think about what he knew about the two men. Sirius Black was a lord and retired Auror who fought against You-Know-Who and falsely imprisoned in Azkaban. Remus Lupin was a werewolf and taught Defense Against the Dark Arts for a year at Hogwarts. It wasn't much, and Blaise knew much less of Lupin than of Black, but it was a start. Now all he needed to do was compile a list of people the two men could have been in contact with.

“Ronald, leave us alone,” The twin's voice, at least the one next to Adrian, was kept at a hushed volume. The only reason Blaise was able to hear it was due to the face that he was quickly closing in on the group.

“Ever since he came along you changed!”

“What? I'm happy?” Blaise could see that Adrian was trying not to lash out at his boyfriend's younger brother and really, he felt for the man. Blaise couldn't even imagine dating one of the terror twins of Hogwarts much less having to deal with their family. Thankfully, it seemed like Blaise would be there to save the day.

“Adrian Pucey, as I live and breath. What brings you here?” Bliase was very smug about the fact that he was able to talk over whatever Ron was about to say by cutting in and completely ignoring the redhead.

“Zabini!” Relief was evident in Adrian's voice and his dark blue eyes lit up upon seeing Blaise. “I haven't seen you in ages. How long has it been?”

“Over a year now. Quidditch hasn't been the same since you graduated.” Adrian seemed to know exactly what Blaise was trying to accomplish if the quickness of his reply was anything to go by. First thing a Slytherin learned was that the easiest way to make a Gryfindor go away was to simply ignore them. Most Gryfindors loved having the attention on them: deprive them of that attention for long enough they would simply get bored and find someone else to pay attention to them. “I hope I'm not interrupting anything too private.”

Both Ron and George started to speak up but Adrian was quicker, “No. Not at all. I was just asking George if we should find a seat.” Ah. So it was George.

George was only slightly shorter than Adrian, about the same height as Blaise himself. The redhead looked very confused as his boyfriend turned to him. “You know, I don't think I've properly introduced the two of you. George, this is Blaise Zabini. He was Slytherin's substitute Chaser our seventh year and took over my position when I graduated. Blaise, this is George Weasley. He was a Gryffindor Beater and now co-owns Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with his brother Fred.” Blaise shook George's now outstretched hand with a small smile and nod.

“It's a pleasure to formally meet you,” He said to the redhead before addressing the both of them. “You two are more than welcome to sit with me. I'm sure Mother will be with Madame Delacour all night.”

Blaise smiled at the two as the conversation continued in that same general manner while he lead them over to the table he had previously been sitting at. Blaise asked the redhead about his shop and how he found running his own business. George admitted that he loved the business side of owning a joke shop far more than the production and invention side, which apparently worked out great because Fred was great at coming up with new ideas but was rubbish at the business end. They still worked together with coming up with new ideas but Fred stayed in the back while George worked up front with Lee Jordan. Everyone was happier that way. By the time the three of them were sitting and George was going on about his hopes for the joke shop, Ron was nowhere to be seen and instead Fred along with Angelina Johnson found them and joined the table. After more introductions and pleasantries, where Blaise learned that the two newcomers were dating and had been since the Yule Ball. Eventually the conversation split up by Slytherin and Gryffindor.

“I'll admit I was shocked when Bill told me you were here.”

“You know George and I are dating,” Adrian replied. “It's not like we kept it a secret.”

“Well, yes, but I didn't think anyone in the family but Fred approved,” Blaise admitted before taking a sip of his glass of champagne that had been brought over by Fred and Angelina.

“Well, I just met Bill and Charlie today,” Adrian admitted, watching the twins talk avidly with Angelina about the joke shop. “They both work far away from England, I had never had to chance to meet them before today. Mr. Weasley approves, though George said he would. Mr. Weasley's happy as long as his children are happy. Odd man I'll admit but not too bad. Mrs. Weasley approves until she remembers that I'm a Slytherin.” Blaise rolled his eyes at this. “Yeah. It's pretty funny actually because you can always tell the moment she realizes. She's all happy one moment and then she'll stop mid-sentence with the reddest face I've ever seen. She spends about an hour after just quietly muttering about Slytherins.” The two of them shared a laugh over this before Angelina tried to change the subject off of the twins' joke shop. Blaise couldn't really blame her; she probably had to listen to it a great deal.

“So Blaise, have you had your inheritance yet?” For being the only woman at the table, Angelina was extremely comfortable among them talking about things that most Slytherin girls would simply roll their eyes at. She seemed to excel at talking about a joke shop, of all things, with the Weasley Twins and Blaise knew she had been a chaser for Gryffindor so she wasn't afraid to get dirty. Maybe he'd just been around too many Pureblood witches who planned their life around their betrothed's money and charity events. Or maybe he'd just been around Pansy too much. Plus he had to hand it to her, Angelina did know how to keep the twins on subject.

“Yes,” He said with a small nod. “Just last November in fact. I had to get special permission to leave the school and go home for a week or so.”

“It wasn't too painful, was it?” Adrian of course knew that he had come into a Dark Veela inheritance rather than the normal wizarding one. Slytherin was a very tight nit group who looked out for one another. Much like Hufflepuffs, Blaise assumed, but with a lot more strings attached. After all, you rarely got something for nothing in the Slytherin house.

“Not at all,” Blaise replied. “Mother insisted on having the Collective Council send a trained Healer anyway. Completely unnecessary but over the years I've learned not to argue with my mother's protective instincts.”

George sighed and pulled a Galleon out of his vest pocket and slid it across the table to Fred. To which the twin smirked, “Thank you brother dear!” When the other three people at the table just looked at the twins in confusion Fred spoke up again. “George and I had a bet.”

“We weren't really sure why Blaise was invited.”

“After all, having one Slytherin invited was bad enough but when Fleur insisted that you and your mum were to be invited it made our Slytherin count go up to two!”

“And then she wanted to invite the Malfoys?”

“Yes, that went over marvelously.”

“Well, let's just say Fleur and Mum weren't seeing eye to eye before hand and it hasn't gotten better since.”

“I bet it had something to do with the fact that Fleur and her grandmum are Veela.”

“I knew Fleur's mum and yours were around the same age and once Adrian admitted to me that your mum was French....Well, I figured it had something to do with your mums going to school together.”

“Of course we couldn't flat out ask you ourselves-”

“-that'd be rude. But we figured it would come up eventually.”

Blaise shook his head, trying not to laugh at the twins antics. Why did he ever think they were horrible people? Oh. Right. Draco. “You're both right actually. Our mothers did go to Beauxbatons Academy together. They became fast friends and when my mother went through her inheritance Madame Delacour was there to help her.” Seeing the twins' confusion Blaise took a sip of champagne before continuing on. “See, similar to how the inheritance skipped from Fluer's grand-mère13 to Fleur herself the Dlack Veela inheritance had skipped multiple generations on my mother's side. She had no idea what was going on and her inheritance hit in the middle of the school term. Madame Delacour recognized what was happening from stories her mother told her and had the Headmistress get her mother to come help. Our families have been close since.”

“I didn't know creature inheritances could skip around like that,” Angelina said inquisitively. The twins had matching facial features that seemed like a mix of awe and bewilderment. Why they had such a face was anyone's guess. It's not like Blaise hadn't explained himself in a perfectly clear manner. “So? If inheritances skip generations then how do you know you'll be getting a creature inheritance? I mean, if having creature blood in the family doesn't guarantee an inheritance then what does?”

Just as Blaise was about to explain, a familiar voice popped out from behind Blaise. “Part of it is purely mathematical.” Blaise had to force himself not to roll his eyes and glare at the little know-it-all Gryffindor. The actions were purely instinctual but really wouldn't do anything to help the situation. “If both parents posses the same creature blood, even if recessive, there is a higher probability that the child will come into an inheritance. Higher if both parents are actually the creatures instead of just having it in their blood. The other part is just chance, I assume. Magic picking whom she wants to posses certain abilities. From what I've read though, most inheritances either have a physical or a more subtle way of showing itself at the birth of the child. But both of those seem to disappear quickly like how children's eyes change colour.” Hermione had stepped forward with a hand on the back of an empty seat but she didn't move it to sit down. When she was done talking everyone at the table turned their attention from her to Blaise himself.

Blaise simply nodded, “She's right.” After all, she had been correct. He wasn't about to sneer at her and tell her she was wrong when she wasn't.

“Oh Merlin,” Granger groaned before looking up apologetically. “I'm sorry, that was rude. I'm trying not to do that.”

“Really? But being an insufferable know-it-all is what makes you you.” Okay so maybe Blaise could be snarky even if Granger was right. Sue him.

All the Gryffindor did was smile a little. “Yes but I would like to attend Professor Snape's class without loosing any points.” Fair enough. Merlin knew Snape was more than happy to take points away from anyone who wasn't a Slytherin. “Again, sorry to interrupt but I do have a reason to be here, I promise. Have any of you seen Ron?”

They all shook their head but it was Adrian who spoke up. He was smirking behind his glass, “Not in a while. Blaise was kind enough to chase him off.”

“Yeah. What's his problem anyway?” George asked, sitting up straighter and leaning towards the girl. “It's Bill's wedding. He promised mum he wouldn't fight. I know Adrian and Blaise are Slytherin but that only really matters on the Quidditch pitch.”

“He's still upset over Harry.” Blaise thought long and hard and he couldn't think of seeing the Golden Boy of Gryffindor. Which, come to think of it, was rather odd. Didn't he see the Weasleys as a second family?

Angelina seemed to mirror Blaise's thoughts. “I haven't seen him all day. Where is he anyway? I know I saw his Godfather here earlier.”

“Saint Mungos,” Fred answered his girlfriend. “They won't tell anyone why but George and I suspect it's his inheritance.”

“After defeating old Voldy-shorts he's sure to come into a huge magical boost.” Blaise wasn't sure what was going on but a strange feeling kept nagging him in the back of his mind as he watched the conversation jump from person to person.

“Ron's just upset that he doesn't know what's going on with Harry and he's lashing out. He thinks it's super suspicious that Sirius and Remus won't let us go see him tonight.”

“You mean Lord Black?” He asked Granger, turning his full attention to her. Blaise wasn't sure who else they could be talking about. Sirius Black was the head of the Black house after all.

“Yes,” She said, confirming Blaise's suspicions. “He and Remus Lupin are Harry's Godfathers. They've been with him the entire time he's been at Saint Mungo's apparently. They would've skipped the wedding entirely but Harry being Harry insisted they go at least to give Fleur his wedding present. They actually left not too long ago.”

 

Lord Black and Lupin had been around his mate recently.

They had been with Harry Potter at Saint Mungo's.

Why was his mate at Saint Mungo's?

Oh. Shit.

His mate was Harry Potter.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

1French: Blaise, you are here!

2French: Yes, Gabriella. I wouldn't dream of missing your sister's wedding.

3In Europe, unlike in America where I am writing from, not knowing a second or even third language is a weird concept. In America, for those of you who aren't from there, we are required to learn two years of a language to pass high school and to get into college/University. However, many people including myself forget everything they've learned once they have graduated high school. So, while we did “learn” a language it's not that common to hear someone say “Yeah I speak suchandsuch.” I, myself, took two years of Spanish and can barely form a proper sentence. In Europe it's different. NOT knowing another language is weird and is seen as the sign of an uneducated individual. Or so I'm told. So, here, Zabini is basically insinuating that Ron is an idiot.

4French: No?

5French: Fleur! Blaise is here! Does William want to meet him now or later?

6Madame is the same as the English Mrs. It'll be used a lot.

7French: My destiny

8French: Mother (plural in this case)

9French: Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. This is how the name of the school is written out in the French translations

10French: Good but in this context it means “Fine”

11I'm using the term Veela here instead of Dark Veela to show that they are essentially the same thing. The only thing different is that Veela's have light hair and Dark Veela's have dark hair. While Blaise is black and a Dark Veela his mother is white and a Dark Veela. But she is considered a Dark Veela because she has black hair not the typically blonde of a Veela. Their instincts and everything else is completely identical. It's like saying that a snake is a Rattlesnake instead of a Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. Both are correct but one is easier to say.

12French: You're as beautiful as always Fleur, you as well Gabriella

13French: Grandmother

 


	9. So, One Week, You Say?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May the 4th be with you!!!!!
> 
> Thank you for all the reviews. I read them all and love you all! I'm sorry I'm so slow with posting but I promise you that I'm getting them out as soon as I can. I'll start working on Chapter 10 at the end of May when my finals are over. Beta'd by Ready_Player_Two!

Saturday

 

It was nine in the morning when Blaise found himself pacing in the Drawing Room. He had successfully managed to persuade his mother to stay with Madame Delacour in England once Fluer's mother had invited her. Blaise had told Coletta that he would be fine flooing back to the Zabini Manor in France. He had been invited to stay as well but had declined. Blaise needed time to think; the farther away from England he was, the less of a chance that he'd go storming into St. Mungo's to see if his mate was alright.

After a hot shower and listless sleep, Blaise had given up and floo called the Malfoy Manor. A house elf had answered, which wasn't unusual at all, and Blaise requested that Draco floo over as soon as he was up and presentable for company. Which, given Draco's moodiness in the morning, would be after the blonde's second cup of coffee.

The house elves had prepared Blaise a small breakfast that he had gratefully eaten and a few hours later here Blaise was pacing in front of the fireplace in the Drawing Room. The Dark Veela disregarded the sound of someone coming through the floo. Draco was the only person, aside from Coletta Zabini, who was currently tied into the floo. Blaise was presently trying to push down the instinct that was demanding that he rush to Harry Potter's side.

“What the hell Blaise? It's Saturday. What's so bloody important that it couldn't wait until the afternoon,” came the demanding voice of Blaise's good friend. “Mother insisted I come over here. I haven't had any coffee yet so this better be bloody good.”

“I found my mate yesterday.”

Draco grabbed Blaise's arm, stopping him mid-pace. The blonde's voice rose with his wrath, “That's it? You found your mate? That's the emergency?”

Blaise yanked his arm out of his friend's grasp. “It's really bad Draco,” he whispered, turning to sit in one of the chairs facing the fireplace. A house elf popped in and set a tray filled with two coffees and biscuits on a nearby table. With a distracted glance, Blaise grabbed one of the coffees as Draco mumbled incoherent words of frustration under his breath.

“Why is finding your mate such a bad thing?” drawled Draco as he grabbed a coffee and finally settled down on the adjoining chaise.

Blaise sighed, running a hand over his head, “Its not. It's just who my mate is that's the problem.”

“Male or Female?”

Blaise rolled his eyes at the question but answered dutifully before grabbing a biscuit, “Male.” Not that it mattered to Blaise as he always considered himself as bisexual.

“Pure-Blood?”

Blaise shook his head, “Half-Blood.”

Draco blinked, looking up from his cup, but shrugged after a moment of thinking, “Could be worse. Does he go to Hogwarts?” Nod. “Our year?” Another nod. The blonde scrunched up his nose, “He's not a Hufflepuff is he?”

“I was at a Weasley wedding Draco. What house do you think he's in?”

The Malfoy heir groaned dramatically, “You aren't going to let me pick on any of the Gryffindors are you? Is it at least a quiet, out of the way, not so stupid Gryffindor?”

“My mate is Harry Potter.”

“Goddamit.”

 

Sunday

 

Sirius was lead down one of the many halls of the Malfoy Manor by a meek little house elf. Sirius hadn't actually been to the manor since Lucius and Narcissa's wedding. Over the last year, Sirius had just met up with the Veela at the Grimmauld Place or at the man's office at the Ministry. Sirius kind of felt bad about that now. Maybe he and Remus could host a Yule feast at the Black Manor?

Sirius was brought out of his thoughts by the sound of the house elf popping away and found himself in front of large French double doors. He knocked and waited for the man inside to bid him entrance. “Thank you for seeing me Lucius,” Sirius said, knowing that Lucius was a very busy man. The man himself was still bent over paperwork and spoke without looking up.

“It's no problem at all. I wish I could've done more sooner.”

Sirius smiled, walking over to the desk, “I brought a copy of Harry's registration that you wanted.”

“Good,” Lucius said with a hint of finality. The blond placed whatever he had been working on away into an open brief case with a quick flick of his wand. He finally looked to Sirius and took the registration form from him. “If the Ministry gives us any trouble I want to have all my bases covered. You said he was a Siren? Did you bring the Healer's reports?” Sirius handed the reports over with a smirk. “Ah. Good.”

“Yes, a Siren,” Sirius confirmed. “Remus has already accepted Harry into his pack officially. It was scary to watch truthfully.”

“Where is Remus?” Lucius questioned, looking towards the study's door. “I thought for sure he would come with you. Is he with Harry?”

“No, that's another thing I wanted to talk to you about. The healer said some disturbing things about the legality of the Wolfsbane potion. I was wondering if you could do some digging for me.”

“As far as I know it's legal but I'll check with Severus. He's the Potions Master. If he says its dangerous then I'll start working on getting it banned.”

“Thank you.”

 

One week after wedding - Friday

 

Harry had been at St. Mungo's for a week now, so he was relieved when Healer Smethwyck deemed it safe enough for the Siren to be allowed a few visitors. The past week had been frustrating for them all, Smethwyck included. While the Healer could run scans and know that all their work was working, if there wasn't any physical improvement then there would be no chance for Harry to return to school come September. The Healer just couldn't approve his release.

Harry hadn't yet been out of the pool because the Healer wasn't comfortable with taking that kind of drastic step yet. On this last Monday, the Healer was happy to report that Harry had gained weight and the white spots were indeed improving. Though, Harry was pretty sure the Healer was just seeing things because his fin looked exactly the same as when he first woke up. But yesterday, when the healer insisted that the spots were improving, Remus had asked if he could clarify. The Healer not only was able to show them a picture of how Harry looked on the first night there - how the Healer was able to produce what honestly looked like a muggle photograph Harry could never figure out - but was able to point out each individual spot that had shrunk. The reason why none of them had really noticed a difference was because the amount of spots had not changed but the size of the spots had. Sirius was very happy to tell the Weasley's the good news that Harry would finally, a week later, be allowed two of visitors.

Sirius spent the morning preparing everything. He double checked on security, even though Tonks just rolled her eyes at her cousin, and ran through a basic to-do list with Smethwyck so that Harry's visitors would know the dos and don'ts before they came into the room. Currently, he was at the Weasley's house doing just that. Harry wished he could watch because he could just imagine Hermione taking vigorous notes while Ron just zoned out. Tonks, true to her word, was sitting in a chair by the door trying to keep the Siren distracted. Which, he had to admit wasn't really working because Harry was just too excited. This was his first time seeing his friends since they parted ways at the end of last term.

Remus, sadly, would not be joining them for the next few days. Tomorrow was the full moon and, after a huge argument with Sirius, he decided to speak with the Healer's Alpha contacts. Remus and Sirius had to compromise greatly after that argument. Remus refused to just stop taking wolfsbane and Sirius refused to allow his mate to take something that was going to eventually kill him. Harry hadn't actually seen the argument but Tonks said it got pretty heated. Remus was going to take the wolfsbane again but only if he spoke with the Alphas before and after the full moon. So, that's where Remus currently was. This morning had been hard for Harry as his instincts were telling him to go with the older member of his school. Remus would not be back for some time and the Siren could not move from his private pool, much less get up and walk out of the room.

There was a knock on the door, interrupting Harry's thoughts. The bubble-gum haired Auror opened the door with a flick of her wand and Harry's two best friends burst into the room.

“Bloody hell Harry!” “I've been so worried!”

Hermione quickly walked over to where Harry was floating and sat down on the floor by the pool's edge. “Sirius only told us that you were in the Creature Specialty floor. He wouldn't tell us what kind of inheritance you got. Will you be able to go to Hogwarts like this?” Harry smiled at the witch; some things never changed.

“A Siren? Bloody hell mate,” Ron spoke with such shocked astonishment. The redhead was standing just inside the room, looking at Harry like he had grown a second head or something. Harry rolled his eyes.

“A Siren?” Hermione asked, whipping her head around to look at Ron and Sirius, who just walked into the room. “I thought Sirens were just an old Greek myth. I mean, half-bird half-woman?” She glanced down to the water, where the tip of Harry's fin was poking out above the water, sceptically.

Tonks giggled but it was Sirius who spoke up first once he had a seat on the couch. “What the ancient Greek muggles wrongfully described were Veela who had their wings out. At the time the line drawn between muggles and wizards was a bit muddled, but wizards liked to purposefully tell muggles the wrong information. So in mythology, Sirens are Veela and Veela, at least in ancient mythology, don't exist.”

Ron hesitantly questioned, “You do still have lungs though...right?”

“Of course,” Harry laughed, “but watch this.” The Siren excitedly pushed off his seat to gently fall to the pool's floor. After reaching the bottom, Harry waited the half a second it took for his ability to breathe underwater to kick in before pushing up and returning up to his friends.

“You have gills?” Hermione exclaimed upon Harry's emergence. The Siren moved closer so that his friend could inspect the small double slits just above his clavicle on each side of his sternum. They would be slowly receding now that Harry was up in the air and his lungs had taken over.

“They come and go easily. It doesn't take long for my gills to take over where my lungs can't and vice versa. I've got a ton of books you can borrow,” Harry said, getting Hermione's attention before pointing to the stack of books that Tonks had gotten for Harry from the healer's list. The bushy haired Gryffindor grabbed the book on top with a happy hum and immediately began reading. “Healer Smethwyck says that if I keep improving he'll be able to release me soon.”

“That's great!” Ron said, seeming to finally get over his shock. He walked over and sat next to Hermione before rummaging through the bag that he brought with him. “Mum has been worried sick. You know how she gets. Made me bring all of your birthday stuff.” Ron started pulling out different boxes with an assortment of baked goods. There was definitely a box of brownies and at least one cake. “Food or presents first?” Harry watched as the boxes all re-sized as soon as his friend pulled them out.

“Presents!”

Hermione got him a new Sneakoscope. The muggle-top-looking Dark Detector was a sleek silver design and would probably be much more reliable than the pocket one Ron got him from Egypt. Although, Harry knew he would never throw that one away. To be honest, now that he had two of them, the idea popped into his head of getting a Sneakoscope from every country. Ron had given Harry a copy of a book that Fred have given him, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches. Fred and George sent over a box full of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products, which Sirius confiscated and started looking through it instantly with unabashed glee. Charlie had sent him a pair of dragon skin boots; Hungarian Horntail (shed not harvested). Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sent over a book on Wizarding customs. The Delacours sent him a box of variety chocolates from France. Ginny, to Harry's surprise and horror, sent him over a copy of a book that George had given her for Christmas once; Twelve Fail-Safe ways to Charm Wizards. Along with it came a note: 'In case you needed more information on what we talked about before summer break'.

Ron instantly demanded to know what he and Ginny had talked about and his stuttering caused Hermione to go into fits of laughter. Harry wisely changed the subject to what happened at the wedding. After a very thorough blow by blow from Hermione, she and Ron fell into bickering.

“I couldn't've been that bad.”

“You were rude. You ostracized your own brother's boyfriend.”

“He was a Slytherin!”

Harry happily watched as his friends bickered back and forth as he snacked on brownies that Mrs. Weasley had sent with them.

 


	10. I Am Here For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter was supposed to be much longer but it came to a natural ending so.... yeah. The rest will be its own chapter. Beta'd by Ready_Player_Two. No copyright infringement intended. Please review!

* * *

Dudley grabbed the duffel bag he kept at the bottom of the stair near the front door. He was anxious to get out of the house and over to the hospital where Harry was at. Between barbeques and dinners with business partners, it was the first time in nearly two weeks that he could get away from his parents without them asking too many questions. “Alright, I'm off to practice!”

“You have your train card and money for lunch?” Came his mother's voice from the kitchen.

“Yeah mum,” the blond said, hefting the bag over his shoulder. “I'm staying late to help train people so don't wait up for me.”

Petunia walked out of the kitchen and gave him a hug before taking another look at her son. It had taken Dudley awhile to convince his mother that he didn't need a ride into the city. She was biting her lips now, trying not to offer her assistance again. “Alright Duddykins. Just give me a call when you head back. I'll keep a plate warm for you.”

Dudley smiled, leaving with a cheerful goodbye. The blond was just thankful his plan worked; he was sure that his mother would insist on driving him up to the gym that he had his boxing practice in. He hightailed it out of his neighborhood and began his five minute walk to the train station. Dudley pulled out the directions to the Wizarding Hospital that the Tonks lady had given him. She had offered to take him herself, but Dudley wasn't sure what his parent's reaction would be if Tonks just showed up at his house with her colour changing hair. It was better this way, with his parents not knowing where he was really going.

Dudley was actually finding himself really excited about going and seeing the world that Harry lived in. After years of hearing his parents talk rubbish about it all, he was genuinely curious. The directions, on a scrap of really weird feeling paper, were delivered a few nights ago by Harry's owl. Dudley had sent her off right away, not wanting to risk his parents seeing the bird.

“Dudley?” The blond blinked and looked around, quickly locating where his name had come from, only to find the lanky form of Piers Polkniss slink out from the shadows across the road. “It is! Guys, look! It's Big D!”

Dudley groaned as Piers and the others quickly crossed the street. He tried to step up his pace to no avail. “Wait up bruv1.”

“Weren't you detained at Her Majesty's pleasure2?” The blond asked in a bored tone. He really didn't have time for this. Dudley had slowly been distancing himself from his old gang since that dementor incident. A few months ago Piers had been picked up for property damage. Smeltings had made it known that if he ended up in prison, he would no longer be welcome to attend classes, online or otherwise.

“Nah, nothing so drastic. I got community service and anger management classes.”

“Ain't it brill3?” Malcolm asked with a smug look on his face. God, Dudley wanted to punch that look off his face. Piers probably got a lighter sentence because they couldn't 'prove' anything.

“Yeah. Sounds like you live to study anther day.”

“So why haven't we seen you around Big D?”

“You guys see me at school every day.” They did have plenty of classes together so it wasn't like Dudley could completely ignore them. He knew what Piers meant though; as soon as he got home, the blond stayed far away from his old gang. “What, you can't keep yourselves out of trouble without me?” They were just a block away from the station that Dudley had been heading to.

“It's strange though, innit?” Piers asked, stepping closer and closer into Dudley's personal space.

“What?” Dudley asked, slowly picking up his pace. “That you sorry lot can't stay out of trouble now that I'm too busy to keep you in line?”

“We keep trying to get you down to the pub but ever since that bird4 from Woldingham School5 broke your heart or whatever, you won't come near us. Ain't that right?”

“Quite right Piers.” Dennis this time. Which was a pity. The whole lot of them were daft6 but at least Dennis had some smarts.

“Wait...You mean Holly?” Dudley hadn't thought about Holly Hall in years. Holly had been ace7. Brunette who kept her hair in twin plaits with the biggest brown eyes. Sweetest girl Dudley had ever met. Kept wanting to change him for the better, get him away from beating up kids who were smaller and weaker than he was. They had actually gotten along really well. Holly was the one who suggested to him that he take up boxing. She thought he'd really like it.

He and Holly realized within the course of a school year that they wouldn't work out long term. Their religions didn't mix: her family was Roman Catholic and his was Anglican8. His parents didn't like her. Her parents didn't like him. Holly was open to the idea of 'God's miracles' and Dudley, like his parents, was against anything that wasn't normal, God's supposed miracles included. They split amicably and that summer Dudley and his cousin were attacked by dementors.

Dudley hadn't really thought of her since then, he'd been too busy trying to get his life together. And now the thought of Holly Hall just made him remorseful. What could have happened if he had just gotten his shit together faster? Would they have worked out?

Dudley, now a little disheartened, arrived at the Wandsworth Common Station9, a small two platform station with slight relief. At least Piers and his friends wouldn't be able to follow him for too much longer. He walked up to the ticket counter and the other four boys circled around Dudley as he purchased his ticket. “I'm going as far as Victoria,” Dudley informed the lady as he handed over his train card. “Just one ticket please.”

“Just in time dear,” The lady said with a cheerful smile. “It's just about to pull in.”

Dudley thanked the woman and took his ticket before turning around and pushing his way through the others. “What's Holly got anything to do with why I 'won't come near you'?”

“Well, there's that rumor that she only left Woldingham 'cause she was pregnant,” Gordon causally mentioned to Dudley's slight confusion. “You know how Catholics are bruv. Took her out as soon as they knew. No ones seen her since.”

Dudley rolled his eyes, “That's crap and you know it.” Everyone knew that both of the Hall girls were taken out of Woldingham School as soon as they started teaching evolution in the sciences10. Holly and her older sister Ivy were being home schooled now. The only reason people didn't really see Holly was because she wasn't a extrovert like Ivy. She was happy with her few friends and her books.

“Makes sense though, innit?” Peirs gloated smugly as they all watched the train roll into the station. “Could explain why Hall left you.”

“The thing is Piers...I know Holly better than any of you.” Dudley confidently replied, “If I was a father, I'd be the first to know. Before her family even.” With that, Dudley handed his ticket to the guard11 and walked onto the train.

Dudley took a seat and waited for the train to begin his journey, setting his duffel bag in the seat next to him. He tried not to think too much about what Gordon said and what Piers had implied. Holly was an open and honest girl. He honestly wished her the best in life since her advice helped Dudley straighten up his. He shook off thoughts of that brown-eyed bird and tried to focus on other more important things like imagining what the Wizarding World was like.

The ride from Wandsworth Common Station to Victoria Station was a very quick and fairly uneventful eleven minutes. Once Dudley got off at the Victoria Station, he walked over to the bus stop at Grovsnor Gardens. It was a fair few blocks of walking and it took him about ten minutes or so to walk to the Q Stop from the station given the vast amount of people walking around. Once at the Q Stop, Dudley waited for the double-decker bus labeled “C2” and rode it for six stops before getting off at The New Bond Street. He thanked the driver before turning down the street. Pulling out the instructions, Dudley read them carefully to make sure he was in the right spot. Not that it helped much.

 

> Red Brick condemned building between The New Bond Street and Savile Row
> 
> Purge and Dowse, Ltd.
> 
> Talk to the mannequin

 

Now that the blond was in London, the instructions seemed a bit far fetched. Dudley had been all over London multiple times. His father loved buying suits for business meetings on Savile Row. There weren't any condemned buildings. The city would've torn it down and built another store on top of it. And moreover, depending on were you were there was one or two streets between Bond and Savile. At least he knew a general area. A cross street or some other marker would've been nice though. Making sure he had a good grip on the duffel that was thrown over his shoulder, he walked on until he actually reached the Bond Street.

“Excuse me, Sir,” Dudley approached a bloke who was looking at his phone. God, how Dudley wished he could just use his phone to call Tonks or someone. How the hell did wizards live without technology? “Do you happen to know where Purge and Dowse Limited is?” Dudley double checked the instructions, to make sure he was saying it correctly. “My friend is terrible at giving directions and he won't pick up his phone.”

The guy was confused, face all scrunched up. “The one closed for refurbishment?”

Well, that made much more sense than it being condemned. Tonks was downright awful at giving directions. “Yes. I'm supposed to meet him there. Next time I'm picking the meeting spot.” He chuckled, which in turn made the man he was talking to laugh.

“You'll want to go down this street until it naturally curves,” The man said, pointing down Bond Street. “You see it?”

“Yeah.”

“That's Clifford Street. The building your looking for is about halfway down Clifford. It's hard to miss but if you hit Saville Row, you've gone too far.”

Dudley sighed in relief, glad to have some real directions. “Thank you so much Sir.”

“No problem. Just.... I'd be careful if I were you while you waited for your friend. There tends to be some odd folks around that building.”

To Dudley, that was a very promising fact. Odd people tended to be wizards. But, he dutifully said that he would take care and thanked the man again before turning and walking down Bond towards Clifford. The walk itself was peaceful. Shoppers were milling about and Dudley spotted the building he was looking for before he reached it. The blond tightened his grip on the duffel bag and pushed onwards.

When he reached Purge and Dowse Ltd, it turned out to be a red brick department store sized building and there was indeed a sign hanging on the door stating that it was “closed for refurbishment”. In the windows were a couple of dummies, or mannequins as Tonks had called them, with wigs and everything. They looked dusty and dirty, they all looked like they had fallen off their stand or in some other way weren't displayed how they originally were.

Dudley looked over his shoulder before walking up to the glass. He felt foolish but at least no one was watching him. “Hello? I'm a visitor. I'm here to see my cousin.” Nothing happened. Dudley looked around again, making sure no one was calling the cops on him or something. He moved to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. The blond looked over to the mannequin again. “I'm here to see Harry Potter. Can you let me in?”

He wasn't sure what he was really expecting to happen. However, for the mannequin to move its head and give him a nod was not it. Dudley jumped, dropping his bag. He looked around to see if anyone saw what he had seen and no one was even paying the slightest attention. Dudley picked up his duffel and went to open the door again. The door, however, would not budge. No matter how hard he tried it would not open. “What the hell?”

Dudley walked over to in front of the mannequin, grabbing his bag on the way, and spoke to it again. “I'm here to see Harry Potter. How do I get in?” The mannequin tilted its head then beckoned him with a twitch of the fake finger. Dudley blinked and hesitantly placed his hand on the glass. When he felt the glass give way to him Dudley groaned. “Couldn't use doors could you? No, that'd be normal.” It felt like he was walking through an ice cold waterfall. That was the only way to describe it. But he emerged dry on the other side.

Dudley looked over his shoulder and he saw all of London. Well, Clifford Street at least. He blinked. It was like he was looking at a two-way mirror. It was sort of fascinating. Watching shoppers mill about without knowing that beyond a simple plane of glass lay a hospital for _wizards._

With a deep breath, Dudley turned to look inside what he hoped was indeed St. Mungos. What he turned to see was people. Right in front of him was a long line filled with people that ended in something called a “welcome witch”. Dudley quietly got in line while he continued to look around. It looked like he was in a large well lit atrium. Barely anyone was in normal clothing. They were all in robes of varying colours. Aside from the line that Dudley was currently in, the atrium didn't seem too crowded. There seemed to only be few people milling about beyond the front desk, including a man levitating someone on his back. The blond quickly looked away and tried not to think of how exactly that was happening. Dudley may be okay with magic and the like, but it was still weird to just see it out in the open like it was … normal. 

* * *

 

 

1Slang: Short for brother

2Slang: Being placed in prison for an unknown or indefinite length of time.

3Slang: Short for brilliant which means cool

4Slang: young woman/girl

5All girls Catholic school in Surrey

6Slang: Stupid

7Slang: Awesome

8Anglican is the classification of the Church of England. Dudley's family follows the Queen's religion.

9Train station in Surrey. Not to far from Woldingham School

10Woldingham School does teach evolution in their science classes. I do not know when they started doing such things or if they always taught it. However the fact that a Catholic School teaches proper evolution at all boggles this American's mind.

 

 


	11. We're Not In London Anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So....it's been like a year and a half. WE ARE NOT DEAD! NOR IS THIS FIC ABANDONED!!!!
> 
> I'm just at University and my Beta, Ready_Player_Two, is studying literally across the country from me. We've been working on this chapter, and mapping out the rest of the fic, during our absence. So, for all of your patience, we're giving you this hunk of a chapter. It's twenty-four pages and over eleven thousand words. I really hope you enjoy it. As a side note, we went back and added actual chapter titles to the fic. All titles have to do with what is either in the chapter or tying to highlight specific things within said chapter. Some of them are straight forward and some of them are taken from musicals/shows/movies/lines/geek culture. I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them.
> 
> I do not own Harry Potter.

It had taken him about an hour, but Dudley finally reached the front of the queue[1] where a ‘Welcome Witch’ sat behind a tall desk. This witch was a tall slim woman who barely looked any older than his own age. She was a brunette with dazed 'I'd rather be anywhere else' expression of complete and utter boredom. Her clipped voice and superior attitude cemented Dudley's opinion that she was in no way fit for her position as the Welcome Witch. The only reason he knew she was indeed a witch was because the woman had been lazily twirling around a stick, or wand as they called them, between her fingers since he had entered the building. When Dudley had gotten to the front of the queue he was taken aback by the complete lack of hospitality.

“Welcome to Saint Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries,” The woman’s monotone voice drawled out.  Her wand was still being twirled while she absently stared off into space, not looking at Dudley at all. “Our hospital has recently been expanded to include Healers that specialize in creature and ‘slash’ or many non-magical ailments. How may I direct you today?”

“I’m here to see someone. The note I was given didn’t have a room number or anything.”

“Name?”

“Uh, Harry Potter.”

At Dudley’s answer the brunette placed her wand on the table and finally looked down at him. “Yeah, no. I’m sure we’d all like to see Mr. Potter. However, only family is allowed to see him. Healer’s orders.”

“I am family. We’re cousins.”

The witch rolled her eyes with a laugh, “Yeah. Right. Everyone knows that Mr. Potter’s only blood relatives are Muggles. Nice try but you aren’t getting a story for Witch Weekly or whatever.”

Dudley slowly racked his brain for the definition of the foreign term. “Right. That’s me. Harry’s non-mag- uh… Muggle cousin.” God this was so weird. It was like the Wizarding World had its very own dialect of English.

“You’re a Muggle?”

“Uh. Yeah. I mean, I can’t do magic or whatever.” When his statement was met with continued skepticism, Dudley tried again. “My name is Dudley Dursley. My mother and Harry’s mother were sisters. Surely you can have someone check to see if I’m lying.”

“If you are really a _Muggle_ then how did you get here? I mean,” The woman laughed. “Who has ever heard of a mere _Muggle_ getting into Saint Mungo’s?”

Dudley was taken aback at the blatant disregard for his own abilities. “I just walked through the glass. It’s not like you have to waive a magic staff and cast a level ten elemental spell[2] to get in.”

The brunette narrowed her eyes as her voice took on a haughty tone, “Alright Muggle, I’m going to need to you step to the side here-”

“My name is Dudley Dursley, not Muggle.”

The brunette continued talking without regard to what Dudley had said, “Quill,” He watched, entranced, as a feather and some paper floated up next to the woman. “Write out a note to the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol. I have a possible Twenty-Three Nineteen at Saint Mungo’s’ Welcome Witch station. Requesting Patrol presence.”

The paper, only slightly bigger than the origami paper Dudley had once used in Art Class, folded itself into a small areoplane. In fact, it looked eerily similar to the areoplanes that Dudley remembered making in Primary. He watched as the tiny areoplane make a wide circle around Dudley and the front desk to then zip towards an adjacent hall that was lined with five fireplaces. The blond leaned over from where he stood in the queue as the areoplane flittered into one of the lit fireplace, disappearing in a surprising flash of green. Dumbstruck, Dudley turned his body slightly as to get a better view from where he stood of the small hallway with its multiple fireplaces.

“Excuse me,” Came the haughty voice again. Dudley turned his attention back to the Welcome Witch, who now seemed even less pleased by his presence, “Muggles aren’t allowed on the premise. So, I’m going to need you to wait over here until the proper department can obliviate you.”

“Obliviate?” Dudley questioned, moving out of the way of the other people in the queue, staying close to the front desk all the same. “That doesn’t really sound like something I’m going to like…” The Welcome Witch just scoffed at him before turning back to the queue of people.

After only three minutes of Dudley waiting and contemplating asking someone else for help, two men came walking out of the same fireplace that the paper areoplane flew into. Dudley blinked, looking down at his watch. The blond was impressed with the response time in which these Wizards seemed to have. He simply shrugged his shoulders and decided to talk to the men who had gotten there so quickly. His awe, however, quickly turned sour as the two men walked right past him in favor of the so-called ‘Welcome Witch’.

“This the Muggle then?” One man asked, gesturing over to Dudley as he spoke.

“Right. Says he’s Harry Potter’s cousin.”

“Yes, my name-“

“What do you think?”

“Could be some half-blood thought he could get his Muggle friend to sneak in and get him an autograph but I doubt it.”

“What? No, sir-“

“How’d’you say he got in then?”

“I wasn’t paying attention when he got in. But he was in the queue for half an hour at least.”

“Actually-“

“The Muggle entrance has a powerful notice me not charm on it. Did someone drop him off and leave?”

“No, I-“

“Says he walked through the glass.”

“What’s in the bag?” The other man and woman looked at the bag Dudley was still carrying before their conversation quickly picked back up.

“Huh. I didn’t notice that…”

“It’s just my box-“

“Just obliviate him and make him leave. He’s making people uncomfortable.”

“I’m not leave-“

“We can’t just obliviate him without knowing how he got in.”

“Sure we can!”

“No. John. We can’t. If the entrance is compromised, then we’ll have more problems than just some random Muggle getting in.”

“-without speaking-“

“Also, we have to figure out what’s in his bag. Muggles can be delusional and dangerous.”

“-cousin and Auror Tonks-“

“If he’s dangerous then you two need to take him away! This is a hospital for Merlin’s sake!”

“Oi!” Dudley snapped, gaining the attention of nearly everyone in the atrium. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Alright, alright, I’m in the mix,” One man, John as it were, quickly turned to Dudley with the widest grin that the blond had ever seen. “We’re just gonna chillin’ over here. My friend here is going to check out your crop duster. That okay Daddy-O?”

The odd mix of outdated slang through Dudley through a loop, “My what?” When John smiled and pointed to his duffle bag, Dudley shrugged his shoulders and laid the bag on the floor for the other man to look at.

“So, dawg, my main man. How did you book it in here?”

“Why are you talking like that?”

“Nah! You and me? We’re going to go all the way!”[3]

“Excuse me?” Dudley sputtered, taking two steps back away from the crazy man.

“You heard me. It’s all groovy.”

“Alright. You clearly have no idea what you are saying so I’ll repeat what I told the Welcome Witch,” Dudley quickly pulled out Tonks’ note from his back pocket and handed it over to Mister-I-Have-No-Idea-What-I’m-Saying-John. “Harry Potter is my cousin. I was given directions to the front door by Auror Tonks and simply walked in. Now, if you can tell me where to go, I’d appreciate it since I’m already late.”

“What are these?” The other man asked as he used his own wand to poke at the contents of Dudley’s bag while John read over Tonks’ note.

The blond looked over at the man and simply stated, “It’s my gloves and headgear. I teach boxing.” When Not-John looked up at his partner in confusion, Dudley rolled his eyes and decided to educate the man. “It’s a sport.” When the man’s confusion turned to anger, Dudley realized that he should have just kept his mouth shut.

The man stood with intense outrage, “Look. Boy-”

“There you are Dudley!”

Dudley’s head snapped up over to where a slim woman was walking towards the three of them. “Tonks?” He’d only seen the woman via mirror but the face looked roughly the same, or at least the bright pink hair was the same.

“I’ve got it from here officers, thanks.”

“Auror Tonks,” John remarked, turning towards Tonks, “I’m surprised to see you here.”

“This _muggle_ says he’s Harry Potter’s cousin.”

“These wankers think that just because I can’t pull a rabbit out of my hat,” Dudley growled out, glaring at the two men, “that I’m too stupid to get in here. I told them you gave me directions. The only reason it took me so long was because you can’t write directions for shite. Really? ‘The abandoned building between Bond and Savile.’ Do you know how many streets there are between the New Bond Street and Savile Row? Three.”

Tonks tilted her head to the side slightly, “Really? Huh. Sorry, I’ve never had to explain it to someone who couldn’t just apparate here.” Now she was standing directly in front of Dudley and speaking only to him, seemingly ignoring the other two men.

“Why would a witch, an Auror, give directions to a Wizarding Hospital to a muggle?”

“Oh,” Dudley scoffed, “I don’t know maybe so that the muggle can see his wizard cousin?”

“You showed them my note, right?”

“Yes.”

“This could have been written by anyone,” John rebuked, still holding said note in his hand.

“Honestly, are you a wizard or not?” The woman demanded, grabbing the note in frustration as she pulled out her wand. Dudley watched the thin light wood, with a really interesting dark spiral design, tap the note letting sparks fly. “ _Scriptum auctor_ ,”[4] Tonks muttered before shoving the paper back into John's hands. “Well? Who wrote it?”

There was a long pause after both men examined the paper before John finally spoke, “You did, Auror Tonks.”

“Right. Come on Dudley, everyone is waiting for you.”

Dudley quickly grabbed his duffle bag off the floor and slid past the two officers to follow Tonks into a large open atrium. The place wasn’t all that busy even though there were many people milling about in either differently colored robes, which looked like a sort of hospital uniform thing, or in just strange clothes. In Dudley’s opinion, wizard attire looked like they picked random things out of a secondhand store. But then there were people like Tonks who wore plain trousers and a plain shirt. Sensible clothes, though dark, that contrasted to every other person around them. The blond wasn’t all too sure how to take it.

Shifting the duffle bag strap more securely on his shoulder, Dudley thought that the atrium looked like it was etched from marble. Dudley tried desperately to distract himself from what had just happened by observing his surroundings, but sterile marble could only distract a person for so long. The blond had this nagging feeling like he shouldn’t be as upset as he was. Was it just commonplace for wizards to think themselves better than others because they could make a feather float? Tonks must have picked up on how he was feeling because she broke the silence. “Don’t worry about them. Just a couple of racist twits.”

Dudley blinked at Tonks’ blasé description of what taken place. Honestly, it hadn’t even occurred to Dudley that his quarrel with the two men from the “Magical Law Enforcement Patrol” had anything to do with race. Both men looked and sounded like white Englishmen, just like Dudley himself. Had he really just experienced racist remarks? Dudley didn’t think so. Or at least, he hadn’t by his own reckoning of race and racism. Could an Englishman even experience racism? The English hadn’t been oppressed since Rome was an empire. “I’m sorry but, racist?”

“Well, the technical term is ‘Blood Pureist’. There are a good deal of wizards who still think they’re better than muggles simply because muggles were born without the ability to use magic. Put a fancy name on it all you like. It’s still racism, though Hermione calls it classist.”

Not really sure if he wanted to get into a discussion about the subtle differences between racism and classism, Dudley quickly changed the subject, “So, did the storefront glass entrance teleport me somewhere because Purge and Dowse is definitely not this big.”

“Nope. You’re still in London, don’t worry,” Tonks said with a smile. “Think of it like a Tardis, but bigger.”

“You know Doctor Who?”

“Of course I know Doctor Who! I’m a half-blood.”

“Half-blood?”

“My mum is a witch born to a magical family. She fell in love with my dad, who has no magic and was born to parents with no magic, and she ran away from her family to marry him. So, I’m what people call a half-blood.”

“Did you go to primary school?”

Tonks nodded as she led Dudley further into the hospital, “I went for a couple of years before my metamorphugus powers grew. Took a few years to be able to control it, so traditional muggle schools weren’t really an option after a while. Since Mum already had tutors come over to teach me about magic, she just enrolled me in a homeschool program.”

Dudley watched as she pulled out her wand, and tap a dark paneled double door that they had stopped in front of. Instantly, the two doors began sliding away from each other and Dudley followed Tonks into a small room. The doors slid back to their original closed position and Tonks used her wand to tap on a number that was on the wall. Dudley looked closer and saw that the numbers went from one to fifteen with a ‘G’ before the one. He didn’t catch what number she had tapped before he was startled when the whole room felt like it was moving.

“Are we in a lift?”

“Yup.” The ‘p’ was said with nice loud pop. “No matter what some purebloods say, our lives would be much harder without the inventions of muggles.”

“But Harry said magic and electricity don’t mix.”

The woman nodded, “They don’t. Which is why this lift, like many other muggle-inspired things that we wizards use, is made and runs on magic.”

The lift silently stopped moving and the doors slid open unceremoniously. Dudley wasn’t sure what he had been expecting but this wasn’t really it. The lift opened up into a hall with giant double doors at the other end that were marked as “In Patient Rooms”. Those doors led straight into a regular old hospital inpatient floor, complete with a central nurses’ station. Everyone at that station wore robes in either dark green or lime green color, further confirming Dudley’s suspicion of the robes being purely uniform instead of just crazy wizarding fashion. Dudley followed Tonks, who walked straight up to a woman in a lime green robe.

“Auror Tonks here with Harry’s muggle cousin,” Dudley frowned at the “M” word. “Dudley Dursley. He’ll need to be keyed into room fifteen.”

The woman, a tall lady with soft brown hair, smiled at him and held out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Mister Dursley. I’m Healer Holloway. Healer Smethwyck and I have been taking care of Mister Potter these last two weeks.”

Dudley eagerly took the woman’s hand. “Thank you so much Doc-, uh, Healer.” The woman, Healer Holloway, waved him off not seeming to care which Dudley had called her. Which was good, since that was going to be something he was going to have to get used to saying.

“Let’s get you keyed in,” The Healer/Doctor said before turning to walk, Tonks alongside her. Dudley followed, looking around the inpatient floor. There was no more marble but linoleum floors and what looked like stucco walls. Along the walls were doors, little plaques next to the doors indicated that the different patients inside, and little half windows.

Dudley was curious about who was in each room, but he was not all too interested in finding out. He was much more anxious to see Harry. Two weeks of nightly mirror talks could only do so much. True, Dudley knew everything that had happened and Harry, likewise, knew everything that had happened at home. Like how Harry’s room had, almost overnight, turned into a permanent guest room for Aunt Marge. It also served as a storage room for Petunia’s craft supplies, not that she ever used them. How Dudley’s new school year was going, having started this past Monday, along with boxing practice. Dudley had questioned Harry daily about the whole mermaid thing. Harry in turn showed Dudley his scales, how he could now breathe underwater, and had even read excerpts from his various books on Sirens. Dudley knew that Harry was fine, but he really needed to see his cousin to really believe it.

The two women stopped in front of a door whose plaque read: ‘Room 15. Occupied. Siren. Under protection by Alpha Werewolf. Unauthorized entry will result in arrest by Aurors. Further questions can be directed to Head Healer.’ Dudley blinked in a sort of shock. Alpha what now? Arrest?

“Place your hand on the door please,” Healer Holloway said whipping out her wand. Dudley’s immediate reaction was to tense, but he took a deep breath and placed his left hand on the door. The healer muttered something under her breath that the blond didn’t quite hear as she moved her wand over the back of his hand. At first, he thought that nothing would happen, but slowly he felt his hand warm up until he felt that distinct sharp sting that he always associated with static electricity. Dudley jerked his hand off the door with a hiss, not caring that he essentially backhanded the healer’s wand away.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Dudley exclaimed.

“You felt that?” Tonks asked.

The healer, meanwhile, asked, “Are you wearing anything electrical?” Dudley nodded, showing her the black wrist watch on his right hand. “Did you feel your hand heat up?” Dudley nodded. “That was the magic. Once it got to your watch it reacted. Most muggles don’t feel anything.”

“I didn’t know you could sense magic,” Tonks’ nose scrunched in confusion.

“Wait, my watch is on my right hand. How come my left hand was the one that got shocked?”

“Well, your left hand was the one the magic was flowing through.”

“But…that’s not how electricity works.”

“That’s how magic works,” Healer Holloway said with a shrug, opening the door before returning to the nurses’ station.

“Dudley?”

Dudley smiled upon hearing his cousin’s voice. The blond turned and walked inside the hospital room. Harry was seated on a couch between Remus and Sirius. “Harry, it’s good to see you again!” He placed the duffel bag inside the room by the door as Harry stood up. Dudley pulled his cousin into a hug. The blond was holding his cousin for only half a breath when the teen started squirming in his grip. Dudley instantly let go, noticing the glazed look in Harry’s eyes. He watched as Harry turned around to look at the two adults sitting on the couch, still within arm’s reach, and asked, “Is he in my School?”

Remus was the one to answer, nodding solemnly, “Yes Harry, you cousin is part of your school.”

Harry turned back around to look at Dudley, his head tilted slightly, and Dudley watched as his glazed eyes slowly morphed back to their normal focus. Dudley’s cousin smiled back up at him again, “It’s good to see you Big D.”

Dudley looked from Harry to the two adults sitting on the couch, then back to Harry, “Do you always ask that? I’ll be honest, that was bloody creepy. Your eyes went all zombie like.”

“It’s instinct. I don’t even really realize I do it now,” Harry chuckled, Sirius and Tonks couldn’t stop laughing behind him. Harry frowned slight and turned to walk towards Remus, “How come that didn’t happen with Ron or ‘Moine?”

Dudley looked around the room, which was devoid of real hospital furniture aside from a desk with a typical doctor’s chair. Instead there is a giant pool sunken into the floor on the right half of the room and a couch along the left wall. Remus and Sirius were sitting on the couch, Harry walking back to sit between them, and Tonks was leaning against the wall next to the couch. Dudley walked over to the desk and sat on the chair as Remus explained, “Well, Healer Smethwyck said your instinct would kick in around those you were familiar with. Nothing shows familiarity more than a hug, something you didn’t do with your friends. I’m sure once you see them again now that you’re walking around the instinct will kick in again.”

“Are they?” Dudley asked, “I haven’t met them personally but they are Harry’s friends. Would they be apart of his school? Also, the sign outside said werewolf. So….that’s a thing too, I guess?”

“Ah, yes. That would be me,” Remus smiled before continuing as if he hadn’t just blown Dudley’s mind, “For now I’d just the people in my pack to be apart of Harry’s school. Less people, the better I think.”

“But Ron and Hermione are my best friends!” Harry protested.

“I think Remus is right, pup,” Sirius said. “When you form your own school with your mate, the two of you can pick and choose who you want in the school but for right now let us protect you in this small way.”

“Harry mentioned ‘mate’.” Dudley said, leaning forward. “It's like all those romance novels. The idea is like, uh, like a soul-mate, yeah? The perfect person for you?”

“For some creatures, yes,” Remus said, turning to Dudley. “Werewolves, Veela, and the like. For Harry though it's a little different.”

Tonks butted in then, “For Sirens like Harry, the word ‘mate’ is like ‘spouse’. His mate will be for life, like other creatures, but he will decide who the person is.”

Dudley found himself relaxing at Tonks’ words. Spouse was vastly different to soul-mate. Honestly, it was one less odd thing to get used to. Which, to be fair, was only one tiny less thing the blond had to process. After all, Remus was a werewolf, a horror movie howl at the moon werewolf, and his cousin turned into bloody Ariel from _The Little Mermaid_ , and Tonks could change every part of her appearance at will. Dudley felt that he had plenty enough to process, thank you.

Something kept nagging at the back of his mind and it took Dudley awhile to piece together what exactly it was. Remus, the werewolf, had said that only members of his ‘pack’ were going to be included in Harry’s ‘school’. But, when Harry had instinctively asked if Dudley was a part of his school, Remus had said yes. Did that mean Dudley, whom he had been called a muggle all day, was apart of this werewolf’s pack? Dudley was just about to ask, his face frowning in plain confusion, when there was a knock at the door and an old man in a lime-green robes came walking in.

“You must be Harry’s cousin,” The old man said, stretching his hand out to Dudley. “I am Healer Smethwyck. You can call me Healer or Doctor, whichever is more comfortable for you. I may not be versed in the science and technology that your Doctors have but I have had the same amount of schooling as many of those who have achieved your doctorate of medicine. I am a specialist myself. I specialize in Magical Creatures and those with Creature Bloodlines.”

Dudley felt a huge sense of relief as he grasped the man’s hand. Knowing that this healer had the same amount of knowledge as a specialist doctor alleviated a lot of Dudley’s initial fears. “Harry has told me a lot about you Doctor,” he said. “Thank you for taking care of him.”

The healer just nodded and turned to the couch. “Well Mister Potter, can I trust that you’ll listen to my advice post discharge? Or are you going to be stubborn again and push yourself?”

Dudley looked over at his cousin just in time to see him blush and mutter something under his breath. Remus looked down at Harry and then back up to the healer. “He will be taking it easy. I will make sure of it.”

“Then I simply need Mister Black to sign this form.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Wait, you want me to what?”

“Step into the fireplace,” Sirius said with a crooked grin. The party of five had arrived at the hallway not far from the Welcome Witch. The hallway was lined with fireplaces. At first Dudley had thought that they were just going to walk out the way that he had come in. But no. Walking was too normal.

At first, having seen the two officers step out of one of these fireplaces unharmed made Dudley curious. Now, standing in front of the oversized hole in the wall…. Dudley was a little more than apprehensive. “Are you insane?”

“Not anymore.”

Dudley stood there agape trying to figure out what to say. Tonks rolled her eyes. “Sirius, stop trying to traumatize the poor kid. C’mon, I’ll go with you.” Without another word the woman had ahold of Dudley’s hand and was leading him to an open fireplace. Before he knew it, Dudley stood inside a giant fireplace clutching his duffle bag with his free hand.

“This isn’t like a real fireplace, right?”

Tonks, ignored his question as her voice came out crisp and clear as she threw some dust onto the ground. “Black Manor!”

 Dudley squeezed his eyes shut, expecting the burning sensation of flames, but instead receiving a gust of warm air. The only thing that really felt amiss was a slight sensation of vertigo. The blond opened his eyes as green flames died down into nothing. Tonks pulled him out of the hearth and into what looked like a large sitting room. It was dark, but not overtly so due to strategically placed wall sconces.

“What. The. Fuck.” Dudley said, standing in the middle of the room, as the woman let go of his hand.

“Floo Travel.” Sirius’ voice came from behind him.

Dudley spun around, quickly pointing at the fireplace that was once again erupting in green flames. “Who the bloody hell would think that was a good way to get around?”

“Wizards,” Sirius replied trying not to laugh. “Think of it like a taxi.”

“A taxi?” Dudley’s voice nearly cracked as Remus walked out of the accursed fireplace, holding Harry up.

“Don’t listen to him,” sighed Remus. “It’s called Floo Travel. Think of it like a telephone network but instead of just a voice being transported it’s a whole person.”

“Molly!” Tonks yelled from an open door opposite the fireplace, “We’re here!” Dudley heard various voices and stomping feet above their heads. “C’mon, she’s probably in the kitchen whipping up an early dinner.”

“You can leave your bag here, Dudley,” Remus instructed before explaining more about the room. Dudley nodded, placing his bag next to one of the two sofas in the room. “Sirius calls this place the Floo Room. It’s just room where we receive guests.” It was a fairly nice room, albeit dark. There were various wall sconces but the main source of light seemed to be the fireplace. The room itself seemed to be around the size of the family room at Dudley’s own house.

“Remus, where are we?” Harry asked as he and Dudley both walked out of the room and into a long hallway. The “Floo Room” had been about halfway down the hall. Dudley could see a spiral staircase at the far end and a total of six doors. The hallway seemed to open out into a large brightly lit space. Tonks was nowhere to be found; Dudley presumed that she was off to the kitchen.

“Black Manor, it’s an old Manor House owned by the Blacks a long time ago. The Black Family moved to the Grimmauld Place to be closer to the Ministry,” Remus explained. The hallway emptied out under another staircase. “This is the Foyer.”

“Yeah, but where exactly are we?” Dudley asked, looking around. The staircase that they had walked under was actually part of a grand staircase with stairs on each side of the room that lead up to a second floor balcony. Under the balcony, to Dudley’s left, was a pair of large French doors that seemed to go to a dining room. The foyer itself was brightly lit thanks to large windows opposite the second floor balcony. On Dudley’s right, facing the grand staircase, was the largest front door he had ever seen.

“Yorkshire, near the Dales.” Sirius said with a hint of amusement. “I’m going to go put Harry’s paperwork away and do some stuff for the Wizengamot. Call me when dinner is ready.”

“I’ll be up once I have a word with Molly,” Remus called back before he started to walk across the foyer to the door at the bottom of the right staircase.

“Wait,” Dudley, dumbfounded, looking from the spot where Sirius had just stood to Remus’ retreating form. “Like the national park, Yorkshire Dales? That’s a four hour drive from London!”

“Sirius once Floo called me while I was at Hogwarts in Scotland from the Grimmuald Place, that’s in London.” Harry looked over at Dudley and shrugged. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to flooing around to different places. Honestly, I prefer flying.”

Dudley looked up when two new voices rang out, “Harry!”

“Hermione! Ron!” Dudley watched as his cousin gave a rare honest smile, at least rare for him to see. The two people who spoke ran down the right side of the grand staircase. The boy was a tall ginger, with a frame only slightly leaner than his own and a marginally dorky looking face. He seemed like the kind of person that Dudley would have beat up a few years ago, who after the beating decided to take self defense classes. The girl, while taller than Harry, was shorter than the other boy, had excessively wavy hair that made the blond wonder if it was natural or product. “I want you to meet my cousin Dudley Dursley. Dudley, these are my best mates Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.”

“Pleasure to meet you two,” Dudley said stretching out his hand to shake Hermione’s hand. “Harry’s told me all about you guys.”

“Same mate,” Ron shared, grasping Dudley’s hand firmly.

“Lying again Harry?” Dudley looked up to see two similar looking redheads leaning over the second floor balcony to speak to them on the ground floor.

“Bad idea mate.” They both looked familiar.

Ron rolled his eyes and gestured up to the two before speaking to Dudley, “These are my brothers, Fred and George.” Oh. The twins. “Don’t eat anything they hand you.”

After the last time Dudley had eaten something that they had dropped, that wasn’t really something he had to be warned against. “Yeah...I remember.”

“I’ll have you know we’re businessmen-”

“Respectable businessmen.”

Dudley gave the twins a skeptical look as Harry and his friends rolled their eyes. “Seriously though, don’t eat anything they give you,” Harry warned.

“Right.”

“So, I’ve been reading-”

Ron snorted, interrupting Hermione, “No shock there ‘Mione.”

Hermione glared at the redhead, “I’ve been reading every book I could find on Sirens.”

Harry laughed, “I have no doubt. How about we trade information later, huh? Can you guys tell me about this place? It’s huge!”

Dudley watched the back and forth between friends with a smile. Hermione seemed just like Harry had described her. Brainiac with curls. “I haven’t explored it all yet-”

“Managed to explore the library.” The twins meandered their way down the left staircase. Dudley wasn’t too sure if it was Fred or George who spoke but one never seemed to speak without the other’s input. “Won’t leave the bloody place.”

Ron quickly came to Hermione’s defense, “To be fair, the Black Library is massive, mate.”

“Anyway,” Hermione said with a huff, “the Black Manor has two floors, a basement and an attic. Plus the hilled forest is massive.”

Ron smiled, “Sirius said the entire grounds are warded against Muggles so we should totally do a Quidditch game.” Well, at least Dudley understood how this house was so near a national park now. Magic. Though he shouldn’t be too surprised. Magic seemed to be the answer to everything.

“Ronald! Harry was just released from the hospital. He shouldn’t go anywhere near a broom!”

“Well I didn’t mean now. I meant tomorrow.”

“Sorry mate,” Harry said with a laugh. “I’m benched for the next two weeks at least. Longer if Remus has his way.”

“Bummer.”

“C’mon, Mum’s in the kitchen,” One of the twins said pointing to the door by the foot of the right staircase. “She’s dying to see you but you know how she gets when she cooks.” They ended up following the twins through the door that lead to another hallway, a shorter one this time, with a spiral staircase that lead down to what Dudley assumed was a basement. They entered the kitchen through a door in the middle of the hallway. Inside the kitchen, Dudley was amazed with how busy everything was. Pots were stirring themselves and knives were cutting food of their own volition. In the middle of it all stood a woman Dudley could only describe as the exact opposite of his mother, waving her wand around. And if this woman was who Dudley thought, then Harry had already told him that she was the exact opposite of his own mother. The woman was short and plump, talking to Remus and Tonks while a girl, a ginger who looked around his age, was reading a magazine with a title Dudley wasn’t going to even try to pronounce since it started with a ‘Q’. When the unknown woman turned around it had looked like she had been crying.

“Oh, Harry! I'm so happy to see you!” The woman put her wand down, causing all the objects to stop moving, and pulled Harry into her arms. Dudley watched as Harry squirmed out of the woman’s arm and look behind her to Remus. The man shook his head before Harry could ask his question. “I was so worried. Oh when Remus told me what had happened I had a hard time not marching off to your house to give that Aunt and Uncle of yours a piece of my mind.” The woman snatchedup her wand. Dudley noticed that as the woman got more and more worked up as she talked, objects began to move faster. Water was splashing out of pots from being stirred too vigorously and food was being minced. “Honestly, that is not how you raise children. Any child. In such a hate filled environment. And that poor cousin of yours, Harry...”

Remus shifted, clearing his throat, “Molly?”

“I will tell you now, if he were my son he wouldn’t have learned such hateful things. I’ve raised six boys and not a one of them would dare lay a hand on another,” Mrs. Weasley quickly turned around, pointing her wand at her sons. “And if they did they know they can expect more than just a Howler.”

Tonks coughed to get the woman’s attention, “Look behind Harry.”

Molly’s head quickly spun back to Harry then looked straight in Dudley’s eyes. “Oh you must be Dudley!” The woman quickly grabbed ahold of Dudley’s shoulders and pulled him closer. “I’m Molly Weasley, and I just want you to know that I am so sorry and so proud.”

“Uh….thanks?” Dudley shifted awkwardly until he was able to offer his hand to the woman to shake it. “Nice to meet you Mrs. Weasley-”

Molly laughed, “Oh none of that now. Molly will do, you’re family now.” Much to Dudley’s surprise the woman subjected him to the same treatment Harry got and pulled him into a hug. She let go, flashing everyone a big smile. “Now out of my kitchen you lot or I’ll put you to work. Ronald why don’t you give Harry and Dudley a tour of the place?”

“Right Mum.”

“We’re eating at four so don’t be late.”

As everyone turned to leave Dudley felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned to see the younger ginger girl. She held out her hand with a neutral smile, “Ginny Weasley.”

He gave a polite smile and shook her hand, “Dudley Dursley.”

Without a moment's hesitation Ginny pulled his hand so that Dudley had to take a step forward. There're bodies were touching they were so close and the redhead leaned in and whispered in Dudley’s ear. “If I ever hear that you’ve hurt Harry again I will make sure your death is slow and painful.” Holy shite this girl was terrifying. His eyes were wide and he looked at Ginny, whose face still held a neutral smile.

Out of the corner of his eyes Dudley saw Remus take a step forward, “Genevra.” With that warning alone Ginny let go of his hand and walked away. Dudley blinked, confused. Why the hell was this girl threatening him? How did Remus hear her when she was whispering? The blond shook his head to clear his mind, then turned to follow the others.

The house was huge, so they were given a condensed tour since the twins said they needed to go back to work for a bit before dinner. Dudley didn’t mind all that much since their condensed tour still covered all four floors. They started on the second floor. The door that faced the second floor landing contained the massive Black Library that Hermione started to gush about for five minutes before Ron pulled her away. To be fair, the ‘Great Library’ held up to its name with its floor to ceiling built in bookcases and giant windows that looked into a small forest area. The floor also housed twelve bedrooms along a hallway and a Master Suite on the far left end of the house. They didn’t go into any of the rooms but from how the Weasley’s talked about them you could definitely fit more than a two people in each room easily. According to the twins each bedroom was equipped with its own bathroom but the Master Suite also included an office space and a private staircase that went from the attic to the basement. Dudley wasn’t sure why they needed their own staircase but this whole floor seemed over the top anyway so why not?

Going up the spiral staircase on right side led to the attic. At first Dudley was confused upon seeing the space. The whole room took up the length and width of the house but most of it was completely empty except for some weight lifting equipment on the opposite side from where they entered from the spiral stairs. Ron said that Sirius had converted the attic from a giant storage space into a Dueling Arena and home gym. That explained the weights, but Dudley wasn’t too sure he wanted to know what dueling entailed. He was ninety-five percent sure it had something to do with magic.

Ron decided to do the ground floor last, so they went back down to the spiral staircase and down the Grand Staircase before turning into the small hallway that led to the kitchen and went down the other spiral staircase that Dudley had spotted in the corner. There were too many damn stairs. These stairs though led to a dark room with five long tables. Even though no lights were on everything was illuminated by a giant floor to ceiling coral aquarium that spanned the entire length of the room. The tank was bright and colourful with many different types of corals and to Dudley it looked like the coral reefs they talked about when they were went over the ocean in biology. Apparently coral was a living thing? He’d just assumed that coral was just a fancy name for ocean rock. It was pretty that was for sure.

Harry ran over to the aquarium as soon as he spotted it, nearly pushing the twins out of his way in his rush. Dudley had never seen his cousin so excited. “It looks like a mini coral reef!” The blond chuckled at his cousin’s antics. Honestly, he’d never seen Harry so excited about one thing. Sure Harry talked about Quidditch and his Defense class but Defense was a class so that didn't count and it’s not like Dudley would ever be able to watch Harry fly anyway. Maybe he should take Harry to the aquarium during his winter holiday as a ‘Sorry I was an arse/Christmas present’.

According to the twins this was the Potions Lab. There was a walk in supply cupboard that Sirius kept fully stocked and encouraged the twins to use, making Dudley more assured that the man that was Harry’s godfather was insane. Once Ginny and Hermione were able to tear Harry’s attention away from the aquarium they explained that the room was originally double in size but that when Sirius took over he had a wall installed to divide it into a Potions Lab and a place that Remus could go to on the full moon. No one was allowed in there except for Remus and Sirius (Dudley, for one, was grateful for that).

They all went back up to the ground floor and started their tour in the foyer. The French doors under the grand staircase/landing lead to a massive dining room with the longest table that Dudley had ever seen. The whole room was lit up by giant windows and another set of French doors that lead to the backyard. On the far right there was a door that lead to a smaller breakfast nook and adjacent to that was two doors, one that lead to the kitchen and the other that lead to the small hallway. The group hadn’t gone into the Great Library like they had the dining room so Dudley was surprised when Hermione mentioned that the dining room and the Great Library had the same dimensions. The blond looked around the overtly large room that had a table, that could easily fit fifty people at it, sitting comfortably in it and just shook his head. There was no reason to have a home library this big. Now Dudley wasn’t against books or reading but he saw no sense in keeping books that you’d never read around. That wasn’t normal. That was hoarding.

The group moved on from the dining room by going back to the foyer and re-entering the hallway that Dudley had first walked through that lead to the left side of the Manor. The Lounge was the first room in the hallway, being the first door on the left, followed by the “Floo Room” that held the dreadful fireplace behind the second door on the right, the first door on the right going back into the dining room. There were three more doors remaining in the hallway, two on the left and one on the right. The left side held the “Downstairs Library”, why on earth did they need two libraries in one house, and a garage that surprised Dudley by holding a collection of motorbikes. The door on the right however lead to a giant indoor pool, complete with waterfall and separate shower areas for men and women. The whole room was very impressive and took Dudley’s breath away. Harry wanted to go swimming and extracted a promise of doing so after dinner. With the tour done Fred and George said their goodbyes and headed off to the shop and the rest of the group went to the Lounge to hang out until dinner.

The Lounge was about the size of Dudley’s living room at home and set up similarly to one. There was a large couch and comfy chairs scattered about. There was an odd looking chess board set up on a table between a few chairs. There were two chairs set aside that no one seemed to go near. One had knitting needles working away on something, by itself in the air, and the other chair had a brown quilt thrown across it with small pile of books next to it. Ron, Harry, and Ginny all crowded themselves around the chessboard as soon as they entered while Hermione had gone straight to the couch end where she had apparently left a book. Dudley took an empty chair next to the couch and tried to absorb all that had happened so far.

Dudley glanced at the book Hermione was reading, “Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean”, and felt a little overwhelmed thinking about the subject. Harry and Ginny seemed to be tag teaming Ron for some reason, though by the redhead’s smug expression it didn’t seem like the duo was winning. The blond shifted in his chair to turn to the brunette next to him, “So, Hermione. Can I ask you some questions?” She didn’t look up from her reading material as she spoke to him, which from what he was told about the witch, was very typical.

“Sure Dudley.”

“Um...Where are you from actually?”

“London. Kensington[5] to be exact. You live in Surrey, right?”

“Yeah. Little Whinging. It’s near Woldingham. Do you know where that is?”

The brunette looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding, “I think we’ve driven by there.”

“Harry said you grew up kind of like him. You didn’t know you had magic.”

“That’s right.”

“How’d your parents react when you got your letter?”

“Well, all Muggleborns were supposed to be introduced to magic by a Professor from the school, though the Ministry has recently changed that. Professor McGonagall came to my house with my acceptance letter and explained everything.” Hermione paused, grabbing a slip of paper from the small table between them before marking her spot in the book and putting it aside. With her undivided attention, Hermione became more animated and involved as she spoke. She seemed to sense Dudley’s uneasiness. “It cleared up a few things. I mean, I didn’t have many incidents of accidental magic, but you don’t forget the first time a glass pitcher starts floating towards you. I nearly gave my father a heart attack by screaming.”

“Okay.” That made sense. A lot better than just getting a letter like Harry had. Dudley bit his lip, hesitating, before adding, “But, they were okay with the whole magic thing then?”

“Well, yes and no. They weren’t thrilled that by going to a magic school I’d have to not go to my secondary schooling[6]. They were convinced that I wouldn’t be able to go back to our world if I missed out on my A levels and all that schooling. We came to an agreement before I started first year though. I entered a homeschool program of sorts. If I was able to keep up with the homeschool program and at least pass all of my Wizarding classes then they said they’d be fine with it. I took tests over holidays and summer vacation.”

Huh. “Did you ever fail?”

“Almost once but that was only when I decided to use a Time Turner because I couldn’t narrow down my class choices. My mum went ballistic.” Hermione shifted on the couch so that she was sitting on her legs. “You see, mum’s really into science fiction shows. Doctor Who, Star Trek, you know things like that. When I told her that I had been messing with time she almost pulled me out of school immediately. I had to promise that I hadn’t messed up the Space-Time Continuum. Professor McGonagall helped explain things too. My mum’s still kind of upset about it though.”

“So, you’re parents are really okay with you studying magic?”

“Mhm, they’re pretty open minded unlike some people.” There was a pause then Hermione gasped, wide eyed and frantic. “Oh god. I’m so sorry. I wasn’t even thinking!”

“Nah. You're good. My parents would flip if they knew the things I did today.” His parents would do a lot more than “flip”.

“I wasn’t saying that because of Harry. You have to understand, there are a lot of Muggleborns and Half Bloods who have one or more family member who can’t stand the Wizarding World or just doesn’t understand magic. I remember hearing about this one Hufflepuff boy whose mother hadn’t told her husband about being a witch and they ended up divorcing before Christmas break their son’s first year. It was awful. His father had to be obliviated and everything. I just read in the Daily Prophet,” Here the brunette gestured to a newspaper that was spread out on a table between the knitting chair and the book chair, “that a little two year old girl from Northern Ireland had to be taken away from her family because they wouldn’t accept that she was a witch. There was a huge protest at the Ministry, but the Minister of Magic and the Prime Minister both had a meeting with her Majesty. Apparently she wasn’t too fond of the idea of obliviating Muggles and relocating the children.”

“Wait,” Dudley quickly stopped Hermione’s informative monologue. “Her Majesty, as in Queen Elizabeth II, knows about magic?” There was no possible way that the Queen of England knew about magic. Right?

“Oh yes.” Hermione’s smile was wide as she spoke with enthusiasm. Dudley, meanwhile, sat there dumbfounded. “In fact, Queen Mary I was a Witch. She went to Hogwarts.”

Dudley was raised Anglican, and more importantly, loyal to the Crown. What this witch had just said flew in the face of everything Dudley had been taught. Good, normal people didn’t associate with magic. And the Queen? Well she was as good and normal as you could be. “Harry?” Dudley called, if his voice trembled as he spoke he’d never admit it.

“Yeah?”

“The Queen knows about magic?”

“Yeah. I mean, why wouldn’t she? Prime Minister too, though they do get obliviated at the end of their term…”

“And Mary the First was a witch?” This was unbelievable.

“Yeah, Gryffindor too.”

“The catholic queen who is known for burning protestants to death? She was a witch?”

“Yeah. Had a wand and everything.”

Ron interrupted their back and forth by proudly exclaiming, “Queen to E five. Check.” Dudley lost Harry’s attention after that.

“Queen Elizabeth II isn’t a witch but the royal family has been known to have magic in the past; though the current royal family are muggles, there are many who consider the entire royal family squibs. A squib is when a non magical child is born from magical parents,” Hermione seemed to be trying to placate him but Dudley wasn’t all too sure that the new information helped him in any way. When Dudley didn’t speak up, still trying to wrap his head around the idea of the Queen knowing about magic, she continued on. “Anyway, the risk of a magical child turning into an Obscurus is too great to let children be raised in such a hateful environment. We haven’t had an Obscurus in the United Kingdom in quite a long time. Since before Her Majesty took the throne, she’s very proud of that fact.”

“So exactly how long has your Ministry been taking infant children away from their families?”

“This was their first case. They’ve only been checking on children at the first sign of accidental magic in this last year. Her parent’s willing gave up their rights, the protest was mostly from Muggleborns, those like me, who didn’t understand the dangers of an abused magical child. We don’t really go over Obscurus at school.”

“What is an Obscurus?”

“It’s when a young witch or wizard suppresses their magic and it forms into a dark parasite. You have to understand that this only happens in extreme cases of abuse. When a child isn’t allowed to use or learn to harness their magic then their magic basically turns against them. The magic becomes a parasitic thing and the person merely becomes a host. During times of extreme emotion the Obscurus takes over the body to destroy anything around it. People have been killed from them.”

“What happens to the children? They can get help right? I mean, Saint Mungo’s-”

“Every child who has turn into an Obscurus has died.” Hermione interrupted, stopping Dudley mid-thought. The blond blinked in shock. He couldn't even begin to fathom what that was like. Losing so much control that you just die. “Once the parasite fully takes over the child is dead. We haven’t been able to cure an Obscurus once the parasite has started forming.”

“Harry?” He asked, glancing over at his cousin briefly.

“If he didn’t show signs of becoming an Obscurus before he turned eleven then he’s not going to now. Remember, he’s been able to use his magic at school. Develop it and learn.”

“But my parents…” The two of them were talking in whispers at this point.

“I think Harry was just lucky. I mean, I don’t know everything that happened to him but from what it sounds like, Harry could have turned into an Obscurus.”

“So, the idea that the Ministry has is that if we separate magical children from abusive homes then there is no way that a magical child will turn into an Obscurus.”

“That’s the idea. It’s not perfect by any means but it’s a start.”

“I think I understand. One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“What are they doing?” Dudley knew he wasn’t being subtle by any means but he had to get off this dark topic. Also, the blond just realized that whatever Ron, Ginny, and Harry were doing didn't involve touching anything on the chess board.

“Oh,” The witch suddenly withdrew from the conversation, grabbing her book again. “Wizard's Chess. You can play if you want. It doesn't require any magic. You just tell the pieces where to go.”

“I think I’ll just watch for now. Ta.” For a while the five of them relaxed, Hermione sticking her nose back in her book the moment Dudley finished asking questions. Meanwhile, Harry and Ginny were trying to recover and beat Ron in Wizards Chess. Which, from what Dudley could tell was just a lazy version of chess. Lazy and sort of violent now that he was really watching. After another ten or so minutes, where Ron had called checkmate and they started another game, there was a loud crack that made Dudley jump in his seat. What the blond saw next really freaked him out. Standing in the middle of the Lounge was a strange little creature with enormous bright blue eyes and pointed elven ears. “Bloody hell!”

“Pippy be telling young masters and mistresses that dinner be ready!” The voice that came out of the creature, Pippy or whatever, was light and airy. The voice made Dudley think it was a female but who the bloody hell well knew if the creature actually had a gender. It also wore what Dudley could only describe as a baby blue toga.

“I didn’t know Sirius had another House Elf,” Harry said to one one in particular while staring at the creature from his seat.

“Oh no Master Harry Potter sir,” Pippy exclaimed as she turned towards Harry and the others. “I be Master Lupin’s House Elf. Master Lupin be saving Pippy six months ago. Nasty elf named Kreacher was here. Master Black sent him back to the Grimmauld Place.”

“Harry is fine, honestly.”

“Yes Master Harry.” This was met with a sort of fond sigh from Harry.

Then from out of nowhere Hermione hotly inquired, “Does Remus pay you?”

“Hermione!” Ron and Harry’s rebuttals were nearly simultaneous. “C’mon ‘Mione.” Meanwhile Dudley looked at the witch in confusion. Why the hell did she want to know that?

“I’m just asking!” Her voice made it clear that she did not think the question was as rude as the others were making it out to be. The whole thing was surreal to Dudley. The lot of them were talking to and about this creature like it was normal while Dudley was still trying to grapple with what the bloody hell it was. A magical butler?

“Not with money Miss. Master Lupin says Pippy be free to leave whenever she wants so long as I be telling first. I be helping around the full moon and the Manor and Master Lupin keeps Pippy very happy.”

“Well, as long as he’s not mistreating you...” The witch trailed off before muttering under her breath, “...but you should be paid.”

“Oh noes Miss. Master Lupin is a very nice Master.”

“So…” Dudley hesitantly spoke up, “am I the only one confused right now?”

Harry, thankfully, took pity on his cousin and simply explained, “Pippy here is a House Elf like my friend Dobby.” Which, to be honest, didn’t really explain things for Dudley.

After a moment of thinking, Dudley remembered a vague story. “You mean the one that tried to kill you and now works at the school?” Dudley had never seen Harry’s “Dobby,” but from what the blond had heard, he sounded like those characters in stories who try really hard but still end up pear shaped[7]. Like Lennie, from _Of Mice and Men_. Well, sort of.

“Well, he wasn’t trying to kill me-”

Ginny abruptly stood up and spoke over Harry, “Will we be eating in the dining hall?”

“Yes Missus Weasley!”

The house elf left with the same loud crack just as one of the twins popped his head through the door leading to the hallway. “Alright you lot-” The door opened wider to reveal the second of the twins.

“Let’s go eat!”

 

* * *

 

 

When the group entered the dining room, Dudley was astonished at the sheer amount of food on the long table. He briefly wondered exactly how long Mrs. Weasley had been cooking. The woman in question was pointing her wand at a few floating dishes, seeming to be placing the last of the food down, as a tall older red headed gentleman smiled and walked over. The man wore a checkered dress shirt and tie with a faded brown sweater vest. “Hello Harry,” The man said, shaking his cousin’s hand before turning to the blond. “You must be Dudley. I have a few questions if you don’t mind.”

“Arthur!” Mrs. Weasley snapped, letting the last plate slam on the table with a thud. She quickly pointed her wand at the man. “What have I said about Muggle questions during dinner?”

“But Molly dear-” Dudley watched as everyone else took their seats, as if this was a normal occurrence. From the way Mrs. Weasley was acting, Dudley assumed that Arthur was her husband. Were all Weasleys ginger?

“No, I won’t hear of it.” Mrs. Weasley sharply pointed her wand from Arthur to the empty chair at the head of the table. Arthur sighed at went to sit down. Dudley quietly took an empty seat to the right of Hermione, hoping that the girl would be able to explain anything that would be said, and Harry took the seat opposite him. Ginny sat next to his cousin and started glaring at Dudley from beside Harry. Or at least it felt like she was glaring.

All in all there were twelve people at the table and Dudley was surprised to find only half of the overly large table’s seats filled. The empty chairs in question had been pulled out and lined up on the far end wall so that everyone had a comfortable amount of room. Remus and Arthur sat at opposite ends with the others filling in between them. There was a huge hustle and bustle as plates were passed around, floated to others, and nearly thrown in the case of the Twins. At first the conversation was light and didn’t require Dudley’s input. Tonks, Remus, and Sirius were discussing something called the Ministry of Magic while Arthur and Molly discussed their respective days.

It wasn’t until Harry asked, “How’s your boxing going?” That Dudley really needed to pay attention. He looked up across the table at his younger cousin, “You started teaching over the summer right?”

Dudley nodded, swallowing a piece of the best ham he had ever eaten. “Yeah, just beginners. Little kids and the like.” He laughed before adding, “Hardest part is making sure they don’t hit each other.”

Apparently the idea of children causing each other harm was more interesting than the Ministry talk because Sirius instantly turned and asked, “Isn’t that the point of boxing?”

“Nah, not this young. The actual punching is between one student and a teacher,” He explained. “We usually have two coaches to a class but that doesn’t stop kids from trying to hit each other once they have gloves on.” At this the Twins burst into laughter, causing both Dudley and Harry to laugh.

“Why are you teaching children how to fight?” Came Ginny’s cold suspicious voice.

Hermione quickly came to Dudley’s defense with a sigh, as the other’s laughter died down, “He’s not teaching them how to fight, he’s teaching them how to box. Boxing is a muggle sport.”

Dudley nodded, reaching for his drink. “Though I’ve had a couple of people try to come to my classes thinking they can use boxing as a self-defense but that’s not really what I teach. Our gym has a self-defense class so I just point them to that.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me Muggles have a sport where children _hit each other_?” Ron’s hesitant question was met with an eye roll from both Hermione and Harry.

“Honestly, Ronald. It’s no different than when Wizards give their children infant brooms. It’s to see if they like the sport and, if they do, teach them how to do it properly so that they don’t end up hurting themselves or others.”

“So, the sport is for adults you say?” Arthur chimed in. Dudley wondered why everyone was suddenly so interested and confused by boxing. It’s not like it was 3D chess.

“Yeah,” Dudley nodded in agreement turning to Arthur at the head of the table. “The most extreme of them go into MMA Fighting.” When this was met with a blank stare he added, “Uh. Mixed Martial Arts. It’s where two people who learn different fighting styles...say boxing and karate, go into a ring and fight.”[8]

Still looking confused, Ron incredulously inquired,“Why?”

“For fun.”

“But why?”

Dudley huffed, getting slightly irritated with his cousin’s friend, “Why do you lot sit on what is essentially a stick high up in the air to try and catch a ball you can barely see?” This, apparently, did not go over well with Ron.

“Oi! Quidditch is more than just a seeker! It’s a team sport!”

“Alright so it’s more like football[9] but with more balls, my question still stands.”

The twin sitting on the opposite side of the table started, “It’s fun. Plus it can bring you a pretty-”

“-sweet adrenaline rush,” the other finished, from opposite his twin.

Dudley tried not to think too much about the ‘twin-speak’ because it was weird and confusing as hell. “Same with boxing. Only difference is that I don’t have to rely on anyone but me.”

“So does boxing have games? Is it like a team thing like how muggles do swimming? How technically it's both and individual sport but you’re also part of a team?” Ginny suddenly asked. Dudley’s eyebrows rose from her abrupt change in demeanor. The red head went from glaring suspiciously at him to sounding genuinely curious. Ginny rolled her eyes with a huff and explained, “I have a half-blood friend who took me to the Olympics back when they were in London and I loved all the different events. I only went for two days though. I wish _we_ had so many sports. Don’t get me wrong, I love Quidditch.”

Deciding to answer her question, as Dudley was pretty sure Hermione didn’t know the answer anyway, he shook his head. “Nah, we have one on one matches.” Then as an afterthought he added, “If you like the Olympics so much you could always watch it on the telly.”

Harry shook his head from across the table, “Wizards don’t use television.”

“What? Why not?”

“Well, you see,” Hermione said, placing her utensils on an empty plate, “electricity and magic don’t mix. So a lot of things that seem quite common in the Muggle world are nonexistent here.”

“But Tonks and I were just riding on a magically powered lift, can you just do the same thing for a television set?” Dudley sat back in his chair, thinking for a moment and realizing something, “Honestly, it’d probably be more energy efficient to just have things running on magic. I mean, how do you guys have lights?”

“That would be tampering with muggle things and technically illegal,” Remus interjected, finally entering the conversation. “There has to be a strong support from prominent Pure Blood families before we do things like that.” Dudley huffed, thinking that at least rich snobs running this was something normal in the Wizarding world.

“I’ve always been interested in the idea, I’m sure with the right runes or charms that it could work.” Harry was right, Hermione really did light up when talking about learning new things.

“And where would the magic come from?” Tonks asked, taking a sip of something dark.

“All houses that have Wizards living with them are imbued with magic, right? Just plug it into the house then.”

Remus chuckled at the girl’s enthusiasm. “This is all theoretical.”

“Actually it might become a thing.” At this everyone turned to Mr. Weasley. Dudley could see a small glare beginning to form on Mrs. Weasley’s face. “My department recently got permission to put a task force together. Seems the Minister wants to bring us into the twenty-first century. I can’t get into too much detail but I have many questions Dudley.”

Dudley blinked as now all eyes were on him. Harry was trying, and failing, at hiding a grin. “Uh, to be honest I don’t exactly know how electricity works. I mean, I could look it up but I doubt my phone even works here. I don’t want to risk it blowing up if I try to use it.” Honestly, Dudley had turned his phone off as soon as he got off the train, not wanting to risk his phone when he got to the magical hospital.

Thankfully, Hermione once again came to his recuse. “When we go to Diagon Alley, I could go with you into Muggle London. The Library[10] there should have what you want.”

“That would be great Hermione.”

 

* * *

 

 

After dinner and dessert the Twins went back to their shop and the rest of the Weasley’s decided to go home. Hermione said goodbye as well, as she had been staying with the Weasley’s while Harry had been at the hospital.

“Alright, I think it’s about time I take you home Dudley. I don’t want your parents worrying,” Tonks said with a sigh. “Apparating will be quicker and I can drop you off a block or so from your house.”

“Ta[11],” Dudley said with a smile. He quickly got the rest of his things from the Floo room before meeting Tonks, Harry, Sirius, and Remus in the Foyer. “You keep writing Harry. Tell me when your lot figures out cell phones.”

“Will do Big D,” Harry said with a laugh before giving Dudley a hug. Dudley said goodbye and followed Tonks out of the Black Manor. Before the door closed he could distinctly hear Harry asking one of his guardians if he could go swimming in the pool. Dudley laughed but then got quiet as the blond remembered that his cousin was bloody Ariel now. When he and Tonks had walked awhile down the road, she held out a hand for Dudley. He took a deep breath and took it.

Dudley immediately regretted his choice.

 

* * *

 

[1] British Term/Slang: A line of people.

[2] DnD Reference because I can.

[3] Slang: Going All The Way is a way of saying “we are going to/ we had sex”

[4] Latin: Written author.

[5] Kensington is an affluent neighborhood in Central London.

[6] British term that has an American equivalency of High School. It’s the school you need to graduate from before going to college.

[7] British slang: to go pear shaped means to go wrong.

[8] I know nothing about boxing or fighting. Everything I put down for Dudley’s boxing stuff was from half assed research.

[9] For my American readers, like me, he’s talking about soccer.

[10] Hermione is talking about is The British Library. Which, if my research is correct, is actually not to far from King’s Cross.

[11] British slang: Thanks.


End file.
